Oxford Reference Browse

*Prejudice and/or *discrimination towards disabled people on the basis that their bodies are inferior to those of people without physical impairments and that, as a consequence, they should be accorded lower social status. Although overt abuse directed towards disabled people on the basis of physical impairments has become increasingly socially unacceptable, wider assumptions based on able-bodiedism have proved resistant to change: for example, the tendency to design the physical environment without sufficient regard to disabled people or consultation with them and depictions of disabled people that are designed to elicit pity for them. ...

Until the 19th century, abortion law was nonexistent and abortion was not seen as a moral issue. However, by the

Planned termination of a foetus. A private member’s bill led to the legalization of abortion through the Abortion Act (...

Previously called absent without authority or unauthorized absence. *Looked-after children are absent without consent when they absent themselves from their care placement without the agreement of those caring for them....

People who are informally admitted to psychiatric units are not detained under the Mental Health Act (1983) and therefore cannot be ...

People who are detained in a psychiatric unit under the Mental Health Act (1983) can be granted leave of absence under Section 17 by their ...

Encompasses a wide range of ill-treatment of children and adults. Instances of abuse that emerge into the public domain receive an enormous amount of media attention and this may lead to legislative and/or policy changes. ...

An acceptable behaviour contract or agreement is a written agreement aimed at engaging someone in acknowledging her/his *anti-social behaviour...

Prior to the Children Act (1989) the legal term for the arrangements whereby a child living with one parent following separation or divorce was able to see, visit, or stay with the other parent. After the Act came into force, ‘access’ was replaced by the term ...

Ensuring that disabled people can gain entry to buildings and use transport, services, leisure, and other facilities. This is seen as a central issue with regard to the inclusion of disabled people in mainstream activities, rather than their being segregated into activities designed solely for use by them. The Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act (...

Subject to a small number of exemptions under Part IV of the *Data Protection Act (1998), anyone who has personal information held by a social services authority has a right of access to the information, including factual information and expressions of opinion. If access is denied, the person concerned can appeal to the courts or the ...

Social workers are usually seen as having several lines of accountability. They are expected to act within the law and may have to account for their actions in court. They are also accountable through managers to the agencies that employ them, to individual ...

The principles, processes, and format to be followed by police officers and social workers conducting investigative interviews with child witnesses and vulnerable adults. In the case of children, these interviews may be conducted as part of a ...

An organization that seeks to prevent the abuse of vulnerable older adults and campaigns for effective responses when abuse has occurred. It provides advice and guidance to ...

A charity (formerly the Royal National Institute for Deaf People) that provides information, advice, and support for people with hearing ...

Using evidence gained by using research techniques in order to seek to bring about social change, with the researcher often being involved in the action as much as the research. The issue or problem is researched, findings are presented, and analysed, and courses of action are suggested. The model of action research often put forward is a chain of research-action-research-action (and so on) in an unfolding and continuing process of ...

A version of *citizenship, usually found on the right of the political spectrum, that achieves greater prominence at certain points in time, for example, as it did in the late 1980s towards the end of ...

Taking collective action in attempting to bring about change as an alternative to seeking change through elected representatives. For an example in social work ...

An approach that has entered social work via medicine and nursing as a consequence of the development of inter-professional intervention, particularly with ...

A persistent recurring compulsion to use a substance (such as alcohol, drugs, nicotine) or engage in a specific behaviour (such as gambling, spending, eating, sexual activity) with harmful consequences to the person’s health, mental state, or social life, though addiction to physical substances is now more commonly referred to as ‘dependence’. If no harm is being suffered by or damage done to the individual or another party, then the activity may be considered compulsive and not addictive. A physiological perspective regards addiction as involving physical dependence, being characterized by withdrawal symptoms when it ceases. A psychological perspective characterizes addiction by the presence of psychological dependence. Addictions often have both physical and psychological components. ...