WP171 Double edged risk: Disabled people?s negotiation of status in Adult Protection proceedings

This paper reports the fine grained discourse analysis of how disabled and non-disabled members of a research team negotiated disclosure of harm, a practice that emerges within risk assessment procedures involving disabled people. It describes a research project that used forum theatre techniques to provide embodied scenarios for discussion. One such scenario examined issues that arise when family members seek to make decision with service providers without including the disabled person in all discussions. The Bakhtinian concept of chronotope and Goffman?s distinctions between the animator, author and principal of utterances provide useful resources to understand the negotiation of status as the discussion in the scenario workshop touches on the disabled researcher?s lived experience, and when disabled and non-disabled research team members review the video of the session at a later date. Our findings lend strength to the argument for incorporating discourse analysis into participatory research, and yield findings for social work research, education and practice.