Articles

‘I don’t think they trust the choices I will make.’ – Narrative analysis of choice and control for people with psychosocial disability within reform of the Australian Disability Employment Services program

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT

This paper explores New Public Management-inspired reforms to Australia’s Disability Employment Services (DES), which assume increasing participant choice and control within DES will enhance provider competition and effectiveness. However, capability for exercising choice within this context is multifaceted. This is particularly so for participants who experience significant barriers to employment, as highlighted in our narrative analysis of the perspectives of DES participants with psychosocial disability and their resistance to exercising control to change providers despite dissatisfaction with outcomes. This brings into question whether increased marketization of DES will indeed support its objective of improving employment outcomes for people with disability.

KEYWORDS:

New Public Management employment services psychosocial disability choice and control

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded through an Australian Research Council Linkages Project under grant LP 150100077.

Notes on contributors

Alexandra Devine

Alexandra Devine is a Senior Research Officer with the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne. Her local and international research and technical assistance experience has a focus on disability inclusive development. Alexandra’s recent research activities include as lead researcher on a UNICEF funded situation analysis of children with disability in Cambodia which utilized participatory research techniques to include the voices of children with disability; lead researcher on study evaluating exploring sport for inclusive development programs in the Pacific; Co-investigator for an Australian Development Research Award aimed at improving access to quality Sexual and Reproductive Health for women with disability in the Philippines; and, Co-investigator on an Australian Government funded study to develop the Rapid Assessment of Disability - a toolkit to measure the effectiveness of development activities which target or include people with disabilities. Ms. Devine is currently providing technical assistance to an Australian Government funded Skills for Development Program in Kiribati, as well as undertaking a PhD with the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Health Equity exploring access to employment for job seekers with psychosocial disability engaged with Australian Disability Employment Services.

Helen Dickinson

Helen Dickinson is Professor of Public Service Research and Director of the Public Service Research Group at the School of Business, University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia. Her expertise is in public services, particularly in relation to topics such as governance, leadership, commissioning and priority setting and decision-making. Helen has published eighteen books and over sixty peer-reviewed journal articles on these topics and is also a frequent commentator within the mainstream media. She is co-editor of the Journal of Health, Organization and Management and Australian Journal of Public Administration. Helen is also a board member of the Consumer Policy Research Centre. In 2015 Helen was made a Victorian Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia and she has worked with a range of different levels of government, community organizations and private organizations in Australia, UK, New Zealand and Europe on research and consultancy programmes.

Lisa Brophy

Lisa Brophy is Professor and Discipline lead in Social Work at La Trobe University, while also continuing to lead, on a part time basis, the Recovery and Social Justice Unit in the Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne. Lisa’s research focus is on people experiencing mental ill health and psychosocial disability and their recovery, social inclusion and human rights. Her research has fostered strong interdisciplinary partnerships, working in collaborative research teams with academics from a range of disciplines and universities, across Australia and internationally. She has continues to be funded by Mind Australia Limited, providing an in reach role in relation to research and evaluation activities and also enabling expansion of research activity that involves the mental health community support sector. Her teams have included people with lived experience and partner organizations leading to research and evaluation activities that are highly participatory. She is currently, or has, working on large projects funded by the NHMRC, MIRF and ARC as well as small industry funded projects. Lisa has supervised/is supervising PhD students with a diverse range of co-supervisors, from law, population health, nursing and psychiatry on topics that include reducing coercive interventions, enabling choice and control and youth homelessness. Lisa has published a wide range of research reports, conference papers, book chapters and fifty peer reviewed journal articles.

Anne Kavanagh

Anne Kavanagh is a social epidemiologist who is well-known for her work on health inequalities. She is the inaugural Chair of Disability and Health and Head of the Disability and Health Unit in the Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. She is also the Academic Director of the Melbourne Disability Institute, and the Director and Lead Investigator on the Centre of Research Excellence in Disability and Health (credh.org.au). Her major research focus is on the health of people with disability. She focuses on how social determinants such as employment, housing, poverty and education influence the health of disability. Her work identifies potential policy solutions to reduce disability-related socio-economic and health disadvantage. Professor Kavanagh’s work also concentrates on the intersections between gender and other socio-economic determinants and health outcomes. All of her research applies high-level quantitative methods to investigate complex social and health problems. Professor Kavanagh contributes to public debate, advocacy and policy development through online media, membership of key committees and advice to government and other stakeholders.

Cathy Vaughan

Cathy Vaughan is a Senior Lecturer in Gender and Women’s Health in the Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. She currently leads research projects working to improve the sexual and reproductive health of women with disability in the Philippines; and to strengthen community-led responses to violence against immigrant and refugee women in Victoria and Tasmania. She has previously led projects exploring the impact of female genital cutting on women and families in Victoria, and is currently involved in research into discriminatory acts against young people with disability; employment outcomes for people with disability; and media representations of violence against women. Cathy coordinates the WHO Collaborating Centre for Women’s Health hosted by the Centre for Health Equity, and teaches post-graduate courses on Community-Based Participatory Research; Gender and Health; and Women and Global Health. Prior to shifting to academia, Cathy was a global health and development practitioner in the areas of youth health, women’s health, HIV and disability. Since 1996 she has worked with community groups, NGOs and government departments to conduct social research and to design, implement and evaluate health programs in Cambodia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and a number of other countries in Asia, the Pacific, and sub-Saharan Africa. This experience underpins her commitment to community-based and participatory approaches to research, research translation and community engagement

Articles

‘I don’t think they trust the choices I will make.’ – Narrative analysis of choice and control for people with psychosocial disability within reform of the Australian Disability Employment Services program

Articles

‘I don’t think they trust the choices I will make.’ – Narrative analysis of choice and control for people with psychosocial disability within reform of the Australian Disability Employment Services program

Disclosure statement

Additional information

Funding

Notes on contributors

Alexandra Devine

Helen Dickinson

Lisa Brophy

Anne Kavanagh

Cathy Vaughan

Article Metrics

Further reading

Information for

Open access

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Articles

‘I don’t think they trust the choices I will make.’ – Narrative analysis of choice and control for people with psychosocial disability within reform of the Australian Disability Employment Services program

Articles

‘I don’t think they trust the choices I will make.’ – Narrative analysis of choice and control for people with psychosocial disability within reform of the Australian Disability Employment Services program

Disclosure statement

Additional information

Funding

Notes on contributors

Alexandra Devine

Helen Dickinson

Lisa Brophy

Anne Kavanagh

Cathy Vaughan

Article Metrics

Further reading

Information for

Open access

Help and info

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