Activity: Case story using a systemic approach (Disc)
Time required: 1 hour
Learning objectives: To be able to look at a person’s entire situation, take apart the different systems they belong to and see how those systems may interact to shape the opportunities of the person.
Materials: Flipchart, poster paper, marker pens
Method:
(refer to p. 22 of PSS guide)
The trainer divides the group into smaller groups of 4 people. Each group will work together on the case study below. After having read the case they will draw a diagram of the ecosystem of this person’s life, including at the 5 following systems:
- Person’s level: age, gender, capacity, disability (autosystem)
- The immediate environment: school, family, work (microsystem)
- Community system: the work environment of parents, community infrastructures, support mechanisms, family assistance. (exosystem)
- Societal system: all the values, beliefs and ideologies, politics in society (macrosystem)
- How the above 4 systems impact each other (mesosystem)
Case study of Ron: Ron is an 18 year old boy who just finished his secondary school education at a regional school for the deaf in another town far from his village. He is now going back to his village to stay with his family, until he can decide what to do next and where to find work. He has not been able to find any vocational training colleges that will accept deaf people or other mainstream colleges/universities that will accept him.
He is very smart and good at many things, such as playing football, he can also teach other children using body language how to play well. He has good carpentry skills with his hands and knows how to do basic electronics wiring that he learned at the school for the deaf from the deaf electrician who worked there.
Back in his village, there are only 2 other deaf people who know sign language that he can communicate with, most other people ignore him unless he can get them to write down what they are saying on the little pad of paper he carries around.
His family is happy to see him but not sure what he will do now and what will happen to him in the village whereas he was feeling so happy in the deaf school around the other children.
In his country, the ministry of social services is trying to create better policies to have PWD more included in vocational training centres, but change will come slowly. He has heard positive news of a state bank hiring a number of deaf people to count the money and do book-keeping for them. He is wondering if he could go visit this bank in the main city and ask about how to get work there or at least get ideas so that he can convince his local bank to do the same thing.
The local people, especially elders, have superstitions that he will bring bad luck and often try not to stand too close to him, others believe he may not be able to work well or hard because he does not understand anything. His country has ratified the UNCRPD, and in his province there is a big move to get more IT industry set up.
Give this BLANK handout to participants and ask them to fill in the sections of each layer based on what they read above to complete the picture of Ron’s ecosystem:
Here is RON’s ECOSYSTEM:
Shirin Kiani and Annie Lafrenière (Technical Resources Division)Page 1