Book reviews -- Housing, Support, and Community: Choice and Strategies for Adults with Disabilities edited by Julie Ann Racino, Pamela Walker, Susan O'Connor and Steven J. Taylor

Prior to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a seemingly quiet revolution occurred in the fields of developmental disabilities, mental retardation, and mental health. At the forefront of the revolution were advocates, parents, people with disabilities, and their families and friends, who sought to find better and more positive routes to integrate people of all abilities into societal life. And, though professional service agencies are also interested in this goal, the challenge has been undertaken outside the culture of professional service providers. Perhaps this is as it should be, as the locus of change remains fundamentally the policies and practices of service agencies responsible for working with people with disabilities.

The editors of this volume are all affiliated with the Center on Human Policy at Syracuse University. The center is a policy, research, training, and advocacy organization involved in the national movement to ensure the rights and inclusion of people with disabilities. Since its founding in 1971, the center has been involved in the study and promotion of the full participation of people with disabilities in society. The present volume, then, represents the continuing effort of the center to advance and promote ways to integrate disabled people into society.

The editors have taken a unique approach to organizing the content. The volume is divided into three parts. Part one, "Housing, Support, and Community," attempts to provide both the context and parameters for understanding the movement toward community integration. Seven chapters are given to this task, with provocative titles such as "'Whose Life Is It Anyway?': Life Planning, Choices, and Decision Making," "'Being with People': Support and Support Strategies," and "'A Home of My Own': Community Housing Options and Strategies." This section is unabashedly political. Yet, Racino and her collaborators write crisply and cogently about the necessity of altering our attitudes, values, and the role of empowerment in the disability movement. Drawing essentially from a political-economy perspective, the authors hold accountable social institutions that permit "flawed" assessments of and delimit the range of choice available to disabled people.

Part two of the volume is appropriately entitled "Perspective." Its four chapters are written, respectively, by a parent, a disabled male, an attendant, and a disabled advocate and leader in the disability movement. These chapters are uniquely compelling. They provide firsthand information on the challenge, the struggle, and the optimism that enfold the principal narrators. Hence, they are first-person accounts of individual crises and successes. Although all of the chapters in this section give cogency to the issues stressed in part one, none is more revealing than chapter 8, "Letting Go, Moving On: A Parent's Thoughts," by Cory Moore. This narrative literally flows with Moore's ambivalence, fears, and growth via the process of permitting her adult disabled daughter to live on her own. The other chapters complement fully the emphasis given to choice, change, and the significance of self-determination.

Part three comprises case studies of organizations. Five chapters make up this final section. The case studies range from a cooperative housing association to a center for independent living. Overall, this section is the least effective in the volume. Although the descriptions of organizational change attempt to utilize information established in part one, little in the narration links the two sections. And even though the case studies reflect advanced research in the field, they are less effective as teaching tools.

An additional drawback to this volume is the substantial amount of information that is provided. This is particularly true in part one. Much of the information on housing, supports, and the empowerment "model" presupposes knowledge of the field. For those new to human services and the field of developmental disabilities, more comprehensive treatment of these concepts and principles is required.

Overall, however, this volume is a valuable resource for advocates in the field of developmental disabilities, families, disabled people, and service agencies. Comprehensive references are provided for each chapter in part one. A more structured and categorized appendix follows at the conclusion of the volume. As a social work educator for the past 30 years, I found it most refreshing to be assured that a tradition of advocacy and partnership with consumers continues. This book, through the competent writing of Racino and her coauthors, reaffirms hope, establishes a commitment to justice, and rekindles the urgency to seek societal transformation in our services to others.

Curtis Allen Leonard School of Social Administration Temple University Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Copyright Family Service America Mar 1994
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