|
|
Current Research
Scope has an extensive range of research projects to support people with a disability to achieve their potential in welcoming and inclusive communities.
These projects are mostly managed by staff within Scope’s services with support from staff from Scope’s Research team. All research is designed to address one or more of the following outcome areas:
- Being heard
- Shaping policy
- Improving practice
- A better life
- New horizons
Scope is currently engaged in the following research projects. These projects align with Scope’s overarching Research Direction: A better life for people with a disability.
Research that supports the inclusion of people with little or no speech
Communication and the Community
This program includes a number of areas, the two most significant being: Supported Decision Making and Mental Health.
The key project in Supported Decision Making, Listening to those rarely heard, is an internationally significant project exploring how to better support people with profound intellectual disability to participate in the decisions that affect their lives. The key project in the Mental Health area is The Bridging Project, in partnership with Monash University’s Centre for Development Disability Health. This is a long-term project aiming to achieve effective identification and management of mental health issues for people with little or no speech in mainstream health services.
- Listening to those rarely heard
- The Bridging Project
- Inclusion of people with disabilities in counselling and decision making using a graduated multi-level communication system
- Communicating Pain
- Determining the role of communication in the social networks of adult who are nonlinguistic communicators. Hilary Johnson, PhD Thesis
- Experiences of adults in using non electronic communication aids
Behaviours of Concern and Communication
This program focuses on laying the foundations for effective communication for people with behaviours of concern who are subject to restrictive practices.
- Collaboration in the Development of Behavioural Social Stories
- Effective Communication in Behaviour Support
Research that helps us understand the best way to support Australians with a disability to have a better life
The Outcomes Project
This program has four active projects which focus on measuring the impact and outcomes of services and supports provided to people with a disability, and developing new client-focused tools to measure those impacts and outcomes. Three of these projects will enable Scope to evaluate the extent to which outcomes important to clients have been achieved in early childhood intervention services, specialist services and day services.
- Outcomes Framework
- Evaluation of the Scope Early Childhood Intervention Service Flexible Support Package Program, Eastern Region
- The Impact of Person Centred Approaches in a Disability Community Group
- Delivery of Early Childhood Intervention Services in Scope Specialist Services Southern Region
Inclusion and Community Building
This program includes a wide range of projects, all of which explore what helps and hinders participation in the life of the community by people with a disability, with a view to identifying more effective strategies for service providers and policy makers to foster genuine inclusion.
- Inclusion - Making It Happen. Key elements for disability organisations to facilitate inclusion
- Food Court Friends – Building Relationships through Research
- Inclusive Shopping Centres
- Optimising Leisure Participation: Developing a model of intervention for youth and families when the youth has a physical disability
Shaping Government Policy
While a number of research projects listed above are used to influence government policy, and Scope is partnering with other organisations on several other policy-focused research projects, the most ambitious project being undertaken by Scope to-date is The 1 in 4 Poll, a national survey on the issues of importance to people with a disability and their families, in partnership with Deakin University. This is a regular poll, the results of which will be used to influence government policy at a state and national level.
- The 1 in 4 Poll
- Equipping Inclusion
