This book analyzes the process of leaving school, commonly referred to as 'transition' for young adults with severe, complex, and multiple disabilities. It seeks to challenge prevailing assumptions and offer practical steps towards reversing customary accepted theories, methods, practices, and outcomes. Despite extensive research, policies, and procedures of transition, the reality is that post-school outcomes are worrying for those with significant special needs. Community inclusion depends as much upon in-school procedures and support systems as it does the inclusivity of society itself. This book directly addresses these concerns by examining the experiences of young adults living through their transitions in two countries, Aotearoa New Zealand and the USA. Engaging and highly readable case narratives bring fresh insights on the diversity of disability experiences, portraying the under-explored opportunities involved in a transition with dignity. Disability is an often overlooked aspect of one’s intersectional identity. Post-school transition is therefore positioned less as a procedural function of leaving school and more so an urgent matter of social justice. Readers will benefit from the transformative framing of post-school transition based on the capability approach. Genuine opportunities within the transition of young adults with significant disabilities and those who support them may promote a thriving life for all.

At the critical life stage of leaving school, many young adults are excited for their future. This is not always the case, however, for students with significant disability. After a systematic literature review of transition research, two essential concerns arose: Students with significant disability experience dismal outcomes compared to their mainstream peers, and they have been alienated from their own transition planning, as well as from the pertaining research. The purpose of this study was to examine transition from the perspectives of those living the experience. Six-month ethnography was guided by three young men, who exited segregated special schools into the early stage of adult life in Aotearoa New Zealand. Fieldwork involved extensive observation and adapted interviews tailored to each young man. Data were also collected from transition informants (parents, teachers, transition providers), and review of key artefacts (documents, photographs, video). Working in partnership, the young men reclaimed their position as experts on their own transition. Their voices, whether audible or non-verbal, were privileged above all others. Analysis was conducted in multiple, inductive and deductive, waves. Using an inductive approach, two themes emerged that impacted the three transitions: trialling post-school options and a lack of collaboration between transition partners called here, silos. Deductive analysis framed by the capability approach (Nussbaum, 2000; Sen, 1999) involved noticing and naming the young men’s personal capabilities, then reviewing the way they informed each transition. While individual transition experiences varied, insufficient trialling of post-school options hindered the young men’s sense of belonging in post-school life. This issue was exacerbated by the lack of collaboration between those who planned transition, to the extent that teachers and the students themselves were excluded. Case narratives were used to articulate the difference in experiences of each young man, tied together by unifying transition artefacts of timetable organisers. The research findings were considered alongside prior research in order to form a counternarrative. Commonly understood transition experiences for individuals with significant disability were refuted, holding practical, theoretical, and methodological implications. Reconceptualised transitions were grounded in the genuine opportunities each young man could have to construct a thriving life of personal priority. A transition with dignity.

Do you have a Senior family member who has changing health and living needs? Do you know the difference in Senior living options and what they cost? Would you like to have a thorough plan in place that offers different options based on your needs, wants, and budget to help you make a smooth transition? Would you like to know more about what to do with your existing home? Transitions with Dignity will answer these questions and many more. If you are a Senior homeowner planning to make a change or have a family Senior member that you are helping through a crisis, this book is for you. This book will help you if you are in the planning stages, or it will help you if you are currently in crisis mode and need to make changes fast. Either way, this book will help you develop and implement a plan and a solution for your situation. With a plan you can move from Hope, to Empowerment to Dignity

This book introduces a process-based, patient-centered approach to palliative care that substantiates an indication-oriented treatment and radical reconsideration of our transition to death. Drawing on decades of work with terminally ill cancer patients and a trove of research on near-death experiences, Monika Renz encourages practitioners to not only safeguard patients' dignity as they die but also take stock of their verbal, nonverbal, and metaphorical cues as they progress, helping to personalize treatment and realize a more peaceful death. Renz divides dying into three parts: pre-transition, transition, and post-transition. As we die, all egoism and ego-centered perception fall away, bringing us to another state of consciousness, a different register of sensitivity, and an alternative dimension of spiritual connectedness. As patients pass through these stages, they offer nonverbal signals that indicate their gradual withdrawal from everyday consciousness. This transformation explains why emotional and spiritual issues become enhanced during the dying process. Relatives and practitioners are often deeply impressed and feel a sense of awe. Fear and struggle shift to trust and peace; denial melts into acceptance. At first, family problems and the need for reconciliation are urgent, but gradually these concerns fade. By delineating these processes, Renz helps practitioners grow more cognizant of the changing emotions and symptoms of the patients under their care, enabling them to respond with the utmost respect for their patients' dignity.

The disintegration of the former Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) created in its wake a group of twelve countries now referred to as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). This book brings together the constitutions of these twelve members of the CIS & includes Mongolia, because of its former close ties with the USSR. From a historical & political point of view, these texts are of interest within the context of their recent history & their concern to strengthen existing national sentiment within countries which are often not homogeneous nations. This volume, with an introduction by Professor Florence Benoit-Rohmer, is enriched by detailed chronologies of the events which led to the adoption of these constitutions & gives material for reflection on the meaning of democracy.

Maintaining dignity for patients approaching death is a core principle of palliative care. Dignity therapy, a psychological intervention developed by Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov and his internationally lauded research group, has been designed specifically to address many of the psychological, existential, and spiritual challenges that patients and their families face as they grapple with the reality of life drawing to a close. In the first book to lay out the blueprint for this unique and meaningful intervention, Chochinov addresses one of the most important dimensions of being human. Being alive means being vulnerable and mortal; he argues that dignity therapy offers a way to preserve meaning and hope for patients approaching death. With history and foundations of dignity in care, and step by step guidance for readers interested in implementing the program, this volume illuminates how dignity therapy can change end-of-life experience for those about to die - and for those who will grieve their passing.