Personal Trouble or Public Issue? Towards a Model of Policy for People with Physical and Mental Disabilities

ABSTRACT

For many years, community solutions have been the favoured response to physical and mental disability, but theoretical frameworks to guide these policies have not developed alongside the rhetoric. This paper attempts to fill the gap with one possible sociological model. We begin by distinguishing the dominant individualistic or ‘personal trouble’ perspective from the more controversial social or ‘public issue’ approach which, whether it takes an interpretative or a structural form, acknowledges the role of society in causing disabilities and shaping economic and social strategies. A model of policy is then drawn up for each viewpoint, bearing in mind the implications for public expenditure, state intervention, family and community support, and service organisation. Finally, it is argued that since help in the individualistic mould cannot cope with disability, an alternative response is required, which tackles economic, social and political institutions or structures while at the same time recognising the resistance to change in an industrial society.