The emotional wellbeing of students with profound intellectual disabilities and those who work with them: a relational reading
The emotional wellbeing of students with profound intellectual disabilities and those who work with them: a relational reading
Interest in the mental health landscape of young people is widespread. This paper focuses in on the emotional wellbeing of students with profound intellectual disabilities and those who work with them in special schools. A relational reading of the situation illustrates some relationships between the two and vulnerabilities of both. The authors engage with theory: the double (and triple) empathy problem and empathy more widely, and with the concepts of affect attunement, holding and ethics of care. They interweave brief reflections on their own experiences working and researching in special schools and argue that these relationally constituted spaces present challenges for the emotional wellbeing of students and staff. The paper concludes by calling for recognition of the emotional labour involved in interacting across different ways of being and of knowing the world and for greater attention to empathising in embodied, perceptual ways to aid mutual understanding and support wellbeing.
Wellbeing, emotional labour, empathy, mental health, profound intellectual and multiple disabilities, special schools
Nind, Melanie
b1e294c7-0014-483e-9320-e2a0346dffef
Grace, Joanna
2d321222-1533-4f68-a76b-1782deb00eed
Nind, Melanie
b1e294c7-0014-483e-9320-e2a0346dffef
Grace, Joanna
2d321222-1533-4f68-a76b-1782deb00eed
Nind, Melanie and Grace, Joanna
(2024)
The emotional wellbeing of students with profound intellectual disabilities and those who work with them: a relational reading.
Disability & Society.
(doi:10.1080/09687599.2024.2407819).
Abstract
Interest in the mental health landscape of young people is widespread. This paper focuses in on the emotional wellbeing of students with profound intellectual disabilities and those who work with them in special schools. A relational reading of the situation illustrates some relationships between the two and vulnerabilities of both. The authors engage with theory: the double (and triple) empathy problem and empathy more widely, and with the concepts of affect attunement, holding and ethics of care. They interweave brief reflections on their own experiences working and researching in special schools and argue that these relationally constituted spaces present challenges for the emotional wellbeing of students and staff. The paper concludes by calling for recognition of the emotional labour involved in interacting across different ways of being and of knowing the world and for greater attention to empathising in embodied, perceptual ways to aid mutual understanding and support wellbeing.
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The emotional wellbeing of students with profound intellectual disabilities and those who work with them a relational reading
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Accepted/In Press date: 9 September 2024
e-pub ahead of print date: 28 September 2024
Keywords:
Wellbeing, emotional labour, empathy, mental health, profound intellectual and multiple disabilities, special schools
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 495375
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/495375
ISSN: 0968-7599
PURE UUID: 7ee73568-c5bf-4017-a033-5c87ccb38790
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Date deposited: 12 Nov 2024 17:34
Last modified: 13 Nov 2024 02:40
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Author:
Joanna Grace
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