Author: <span>Bo</span>

About the diagnosis oppositional defiant disorder, ODD

For some years I have been thinking about how we use certain diagnoses. One of the diagnoses used in very different ways is the diagnosis oppositional defiant disorder, ODD. Often when I ask colleagues why they’ve made the diagnosis I get the reply that the child met the criteria. That’s …

About staff saying: ”What the hell else could I’ve done?”

Sometimes I meet staff who’ve been involved in a situation that didn’t turn out very well. They may have used a restraint like straps or belts or another physical intervention, or perhaps just set a limit they felt wasn’t right afterwards. Perhaps they’ve taken a mobile from a service-user or …

Traffic is dangerous if there’s no structure or you’re sleeping

Sometimes I meet staff who have entered into a heightened safety awareness. They describe the people they work with as being dangerous and are constantly on their guard. They might remove anything that you could hurt yourself with or that might be thrown. I do not deny that people with …

The autism car

There are many different ways to describe autism. Some of the ways we normally use are actually diagnostic criteria, which are not always pedagogically relevant. Therefore, I distinguish between defining symptoms (used in diagnostics) and descriptive symptoms (which provide more information and often are pedagogically relevant to a greater degree). …

On the ethics of autonomy

The american philosopher Martha Nussbaum wrote a wonderful book of great relevance in psychiatry, care and education. It´s called Frontiers of Justice. In it she claims that all care concerning people with disabilities is centered around the limitation of people´s autonomy. We limit people´s autonomy when we decide they should brush …