The basic right for social inclusion and 'moral parity' through Intensive Interaction

This week my Blog is built on three recent articles published in the journal PMLDLink. These articles all seem to point us to the purely moral arguments that support the use of Intensive Interaction with our learners, service users and family members. This moral argument makes the case that people, all people, have a right to 'moral parity', and that their needs for genuine social inclusion and belonging (i.e. through the use of Intensive Interaction) should be respected and therefore met ... as of right i.e. irrespective of all other considerations.

Here are some extracts from those articles:

Communication, human rights and Intensive Interaction by Dave Hewitt, Julie Calverley, Jules McKim & Amandine Mourière (PMLDLink,  vol 31(1), issue 92).

‘For years now, Intensive Interaction has been bringing this ordinary, normal joy and fulfilment of true human contact and relationship to the most communicatively disadvantaged people ... The people we care about, can become in that moment, no longer disadvantaged, can take up their rightful, ordinary, normal place in the social world and the social to-ing and fro-ing that the rest of us enjoy without really thinking about it’.

‘Are we not now advanced into the stage where we recognise that this need for basic, meaningful human connection and interaction, a sense of social belonging, is so prominent, that it is practically an abuse of human rights if services failed to provide members of staff with sufficient expertise for making human communication contact with service users who are very ‘difficult to reach’. These rights have surely already been internationally recognised (Article 21, United Nations 2006) ... everybody can have true social participation – and surely, as of right.’

A transformation from socially isolated into a social butterfly through using Intensive Interaction by Emily Woolman (PMLDLink, vol 31(1), issue 92)… a personal reflection on the Intensive Interaction journey I have had with my family member over 15 months as I trained to become an Intensive Interaction coordinator.

‘… Communication is an essential human need and is recognised as a basic human right: ‘Without it (communication), no individual or community can exist, or prosper’ (Thurman, S. 2009)'

‘Personally, the difference that Intensive Interaction has made to Rose and my family is incredible and I want this for every family … Rose has transformed from being socially isolated into a social butterfly. Every person who is socially isolated deserves to be a social butterfly and through using Intensive Interaction this profound transformation is possible and as Rose proves, age and disability is no barrier to communication!

The ethics of belonging by Melanie Nind & Iva Stranadová (PMLDLink, vol 31(1), issue 93).

‘… the sense of inclusion in community has not always reached people with PMLD.’

‘Belonging has been debated among philosophers, practitioners, researchers and disability activists … Antonsich (2010) argues it is central to well-being. Belonging is also about place – safe spaces; memory – being at ease with people ... Research to date has not considered how people with PMLD experience belonging but the ethics of belonging means that the concept must include them. It must involve being regarded as ‘worthy of moral parity’ (Feder Kittay, 2019)'.

I need say no more! 

You can subscribe to the PMLDLink journal by emailing: info@pmldlink.org.uk