Insuring against disability - towards a sustainable society

Life is characterised by care. To the degree that we pay attention to needs; the responsibilities we accept; the inherent value, meaning and dignity we see in each other, will we deal with our cares, our worries, and our impairments. But it starts with the fact of interdependence.

Interdependence

None of us are independent islands. We are all dependent beings. Dependent on our environment, goods and services others produce and, crucially, on assistance others provide to us when helpless as babies and toddlers, ill, or frail aged. Most of that care is given out of love, without expectations of (re)payment. That kind of care means the ongoing exercise of small acts of creativity, persistence, kindness, generosity, acceptance and flexibility in difficult circumstances, to mention only a few. No holidays, RDO’s or set lunch breaks. Without care none of us would exist. The way we survive and thrive is through co-operation and altruism. Essentially not through competition and self-interested exercise of choice in a world without limits - the dominant social values framework.

The experience of disability magnifies our reality of limits, within we must live, and reveals the possibility of living well in that reality. It reveals also that there are no boundaries between people with or without impairments, just a continuum of bodily and mental states. We all need each other and feel good in the mutual acts of care that interdependence involves. We live by virtue of relationships and our deepest needs are fulfilled within positive relations. Without that relational framework people and communities fall apart, and those who are most vulnerable feel the worst of its effects.

Relationships, relationships, relationships

As current Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner wrote (in Crowded Lives, 2003), when in opposition:

Relationships are the missing piece of the political puzzle. As we struggle to adapt to the domination of the bottom line and to constant economic, social and technological change, the factor invariably omitted from the equation is human relationships. … The shape of our future society will be determined by the health and strength of our human relationships. Our economic progress depends on the relationships that sustain our economic activity. … We must refashion our entire approach to organizing our society, and put relationships at its heart.

Our malfunctioning human services are built on values that contain the seeds of the problem they want to fix. We could refashion disability service based on the solid ground of good relationships.

We are relational beings who wither outside caring relationships and become the best we can be within them. The disability experience is a magnifying glass held over the human condition and so it is that if we facilitated the best, supportive relationships, and welcoming communities for the most vulnerable of Australians, that our entire society would benefit. How? Well, the practice of care is the “secret sauce” in making healthy relationships and developing those personal qualities that make for fulfilled human beings. Just as Tanner did for relationships, it has been proposed as a political framework for governance at many levels.

Processes of care as a solid foundation

Joan Tronto’s (“Care as a basis for radical political judgments”, Hypatia, Spring 1995) framework of care emphasises coherence between the needs of people and the organisations that serve them. The processes of care arising from the lived experience of people reflect our true human nature, our core needs and values. Therefore any human service organisation whose services and structures are coherent with that experience are likely meeting real needs and doing the least harm. It firmly values the individual in community. The processes of care can only really be harnessed by organisations that model them - live them - in their organisational structure and processes.

The four processes of care are:

1. to pay proper attention to the person’s needs;
2. the taking of responsibility for meeting them;
3. exercising a competent approach; and
4. responsiveness in care as a mutual process.

An overarching frame work of care applied to core human needs is worth exploring as a 21st century approach to supporting people with disabilities and overhauling the existing disability services infrastructure. There is not enough space in this article to explore the full application of it in “insuring” people with disabilities against disabling attitudes.

Applying such a care framework is not Utopian as it is based in our daily human experience. And if care is really everyday commonsense, why should it be too difficult to implement in the way we govern our services? It’s about time. So, it’s all about choice when the chips are down: eliminating disability is as easy as changing our minds.