Dom pomocy społecznej jako miejsce pracy. Analiza procesu stawania się opiekunem osób niepełnosprawnych intelektualnie
Social Welfare Home As a Workplace: Analyzing the Process of Becoming a Guardian of Individuals with Mental Disabilities

Summary/Abstract: In this article, I present the process of ‘becoming’ an employee of a social welfare home for individuals with mental disabilities. To this purpose, I focus on the acquisition of particular skills that are necessary when working with persons with disabilities, as well as on transformations that take place with regard to perceiving and defining the self in a manner adequate for ‘professionals’ who help. The research results prove that work in conditions provided within a welfare facility entails certain consequences and lays down particular requirements related to the necessity of reconciling the totalizing regime of a welfare institution with the attentiveness to the residents’ well-being and the fulfillment of their needs. The data that the paper is based on comes from research that was carried out in three social welfare homes for individuals with intellectual disabilities (one for men, one for women, and one that is co-educational). The studies employed qualitative techniques, including the unstructured interview and participant observation. The data analysis was performed in accordance with the procedures of grounded theory.

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