Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Furthermore, it helps them to cooperate with the disabled user and with the professionals
to solve problems related to disability.
8.7.3.3 The Professionals' Multidisciplinary Team
Psychologists can also work on professionals' representations of the center and of the dis-
abled users because they can hinder or facilitate the process and the achievement of goals.
In fact, as has been highlighted in the previously presented study, if the representation
of the user is passive, user abilities are not taken into account, hindering the user's active
participation in the process. This representation does not help professionals to motivate
their users in assuming an active role. To be effective, the process needs the users' collabo-
ration; they should take responsibility for managing their own conditions and use support
and advice provided by professionals to become independent. For instance, assigning a
long cane to a disabled user and teaching him to walk with it does not imply that once the
process is over, the disabled person will use the cane to get out of his or her home. There
is a difference between obtaining or being trained in the use of a technical aid and using
it in everyday life.
Because of the psychological difficulties people face in adapting to disability, it is up
to the professionals to promote a change in the users' attitudes (Hayeems et al. 2005;
Godshalk et al. 2008). To achieve this goal, it is important for professionals to perceive the
user as able to state his or her needs and solve his or her problems, representing him as
independent, productive, and self-effective. This is why passive user representation does
not help professionals in being effective. Moreover, the incoming user may not have an
active representation of himself or herself.
Users' passivity is not negative in all cases. Sometimes it is important for a person to
rely upon the professionals' ability to take care of them (e.g., when it is not possible to act
directly in relation to the problem, as when it is necessary to undergo surgery). In fact,
passivity can solicit professionals' care, and it is useful because intervention relies upon
their performance. Nevertheless, in the ATA process, users have to rely upon profession-
als' performance, but participate actively, because it helps them to collaborate effectively
with professionals.
Moreover, a team of professionals implies different representations that have to be com-
bined. As shown in cluster 1 (management) of the research, this does not facilitate the work
and needs extra effort to manage it. The difficulty faced in combining types of professional
expertise can lie within the professionals' different representations of the process and of
the user.
Finally, the possibility to understand and reorganize the representations of all of the
participants in the ATA process (users, professionals, relatives) would allow for the
improvement of the service provided by professionals, thus making it more effective for
the disabled user in the short and long term. Furthermore, the center could become a real
reference for the disabled user if further problems should occur.
8.8 Conclusions
This chapter deals with the professional skills of the psychologist and the way in which
they are applied in a center for technical aid. This chapter also provides an original
