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ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN FAMILY AND DISABILITY STUDIES RESEARCH COLLABORATION (AFDSRC)

Updated May 2009

The Australian Family and Disability Studies Research Collaboration is part of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney.

The AFDSRC Team is made up of a number of professionals from a range of disciplines - occupational therapy, psychology, social work - all of whom are committed to identifying, promoting and addressing the issues faced by families where a parent or child has a disability.

Our broad aim is to actively promote the full participation of these families in the life of their respective communities.

To this end:

• We engage as researchers in the communicative task of understanding the shared experience of family and disability, seeking to identify those influences on being and becoming a parent with a disability, or a parent of a child with a disability, or the child of a parent with a disability;
• We reveal the conditions (discourses, systems, processes and practices) restricting or precluding parent and child participation in processes of constructing their identities, authoring their lives and conveying their support needs;
• We promote communicative practices (at macro and micro-levels), that is, the full unconstrained participation of these parents and children in processes of understanding and planning for their support needs; and
• We identify the support and service needs of families with special needs (over the life course), and identify, or if need be, 'invent' effective approaches to promoting parent-child health and wellbeing.

You can find comprehensive outlines of every publication the AFDSRC has produced under "Our Publications" or look for area specific resources in the relevant section of the website. If you would like to know more about how to effectively work with and support families where a member has a disability, visit our "In Practice" link in an individual section.

You will see that the AFDSRC has specialist knowledge in the areas of:

• Parents with Intellectual Disability
• Child Protection
• Early Intervention and Out-of-Home Placement

In addition to these, our future research will explore issues pertaining to:

• Children with a Disability
• Children of Parents with a Disability
• Adults with a Disability
• Family Care

Whether you are a professional in the field, a parent with a disability, or someone interested in learning more about families and disability, we trust you will find this site informative. We welcome any feedback you may have as to how it has been helpful and how it may be of even more use to you, personally and professionally.