Staff now and then - what has changed?

Eygló Ebba Hreinsdóttir and Gudrun Stefansdóttir

This paper will explore the role of staff at different times. Ebba will tell about her experiences of the staff when she lived at an institution in Iceland. Gudrun will describe her experiences from the staff point of view but she worked at the same institution Ebba lived. She will also talk about dominant ideology at that time and if and how it influenced the staff behaviour. They both agree that the staff roles at the institution was mainly to control and look after the ´patient‘.

Then Ebba will tell about her memories from a group home she lived in and she will raise the question if the role of the staff were different from the institution. Lastly, they will discuss the role of a staff today and Ebba will talk about how she thinks staff should support people with learning disabilities.