Models for facilitating community participation of adults with cognitive impairment

National Disability Services’ Centre for Applied Research leads a research consortium to bring conceptual clarity to the diverse manifestations of community participation for people with cognitive disability and identify the promising staff practices and organisational strategies for supporting community participation.

The study will develop a typology for understanding community participation and identify practices for achieving it from both the literature and case studies of best practice in Australian disability or mainstream services. These findings will inform an action research approach to understanding the challenges for organisations in implementing or re-orientating services to deliver the elements of best practice.

Research findings will enable NDS to provide policy advice regarding models for delivering effective support for community participation for people with cognitive disability. It will also help to identify requirements for consequent funding, organisational strategies, and ways to inform the wider community about the social conditions and contextual factors needed to optimise participation of people with cognitive impairment.

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