{"id":1561,"date":"2015-04-03T17:36:10","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T17:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tvndy.ca\/?p=1561\/"},"modified":"2018-11-08T15:59:20","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T15:59:20","slug":"webcast-archive-self-esteem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/2015\/04\/webcast-archive-self-esteem\/","title":{"rendered":"Webcast archive: Self-esteem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1180\" height=\"664\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JAVunDNODQo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In this episode of <em>Euthanasia &amp; Disability<\/em>, Amy Hasbrouck and Christian Debray discuss:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Self-esteem<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Please note that this text is only a script and that our webcast contains additional commentary.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SELF-ESTEEM<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Beneath a person\u2019s wish to die, you\u2019ll often find that the person feels he has lost, or never had any value as a human being.<\/li>\n<li>Whether the person was born with a disability or became disabled as an adult, self-esteem can be seriously damaged by the effects of discrimination.<\/li>\n<li>Most people with developmental disabilities grow up in families where they are the only disabled person, which can make them feel isolated and different.<\/li>\n<li>At the birth of a disabled child, parents may show a wide range of reactions:\n<ul>\n<li>Some are not upset by the news. They do what\u2019s necessary to obtain services and supports to help their child reach her potential.<\/li>\n<li>For some parents, it\u2019s a tragedy.<\/li>\n<li>Some parents feel they\u2019ve been robbed of their dreams for their child, and for their lives as parents. Some parents even bring \u201cwrongful life\u201d lawsuits, saying their child never should have been born.<\/li>\n<li>Some treat it as a huge burden, and complain to everyone about how much they have sacrificed for their child.<\/li>\n<li>There are others who believe the child\u2019s disability is a punishment from God visited upon them and\/or their child.<\/li>\n<li>Some parents have very low expectations for their child, and are overprotective, stifling the child, impeding his progress and potential<\/li>\n<li>Other parents do the minimum possible for the child, leaving him to sink or swim.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>An isolated child, faced with his parents\u2019 negative feelings about his disability (which cannot be separated from who he is) will have a very hard time having a healthy self-esteem. It\u2019s similar to the experience of gay children, who learn that their parents don\u2019t approve of homosexuality.<\/li>\n<li>When an adult develops a disability, several things happen that can damage his self-esteem.\n<ul>\n<li>If the person already has some underlying emotional problems, they will probably be exacerbated by stress, loss and grief.<\/li>\n<li>The person will be confronted by family members, doctors, social workers, friends and a society that believes that disability is a fate worse than death.<\/li>\n<li>He will be faced with physical, communication and institutional barriers, and he will find his choices very limited. Even if he can still do his job, he may not be able to get into his workplace.\u00a0 The disability pension does not provide a liveable income, his home is not accessible, and he won\u2019t appreciate having a different attendant every day, and he won\u2019t want to go to to a nursing home.<\/li>\n<li>He\u2019ll notice that he\u2019s suffered a huge loss in social status. He\u2019ll lose friends who can\u2019t deal with his disability.\u00a0 Other people will treat him differently.<\/li>\n<li>The images propagated in the media of disabled people don\u2019t really apply to him. These include:\n<ul>\n<li>The bad guy: who always has a scar, a limp, a prosthesis, or some other external mark of his moral failing.<\/li>\n<li>The victim: small and weak, the victim waits upon the charity of others, can do nothing to help himself, is generous but suffers courageously in silence. He always dies at the end.\u00a0 This character often appears in films that show assisted suicide and euthanasia in a positive light.<\/li>\n<li>The overcomer, or \u201csuper cripple\u201d: With energy, spirit and courage, this character takes on obstacles one after another, and succeeds in all he does. If he has a motivation problem, there\u2019s always a non-disabled person around to tell him to stop whining and feeling sorry for himself.\u00a0 The super cripple is there to inspire the audience, even if all he\u2019s doing is getting out of bed.<\/li>\n<li>These characters are always played by non-disabled people, who win Oscars for their roles.<\/li>\n<li>Obviously they are not realistic human characters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Reporting that perpetuates these stereotypes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>All of this attacks a person\u2019s self esteem. And when a person looks for emotional support, there is a good chance that any psychologist she consults will hold the same prejudices as the rest of society.<\/li>\n<li>Fine, so that\u2019s the problem, how do we solve it?\n<ul>\n<li>Recruit and train more people with disabilities to work as mental health professionals<\/li>\n<li>Offer training to non-disabled mental health professionals conducted by people with disabilities.<\/li>\n<li>Provide peer support in hospitals and rehabilitation centres. It,s less important that the people share a diagnosis than that they share the experience of loss and discrimination.<\/li>\n<li>Improve options for community integration. Redirect funds from nursing homes to home care, according to the independent living model of consumer control.<\/li>\n<li>Change the portrayals of disabled people in the media.\u00a0 We have to take our place in front of and behind the camera.\u00a0 We should no longer accept that actors without disabilities play roles of disabled people.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n   ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\n<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nToday, we discuss the importance of self-esteem for disabled people, and how it can be improved or damaged.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/2015\/04\/webcast-archive-self-esteem\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Webcast archive: Self-esteem&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/2015\/04\/webcast-archive-self-esteem\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Webcast archive: Self-esteem&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[121,324,322,397,118],"class_list":["post-1561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-webcast-archive","tag-euthanasia-disability","tag-film","tag-media","tag-parents","tag-webcast","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1561"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3819,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions\/3819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}