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Students of Social Work Learning About BIID In Ontario
Written by Sean on Saturday, January 30, 2010
I receive Google Alerts on a variety of keywords I want to be aware of. One of them is, obviously, BIID. A recent alert pointed me to the course outline for a class on Social Work and Disability, out of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. I was rather surprised, but quite pleased.
It is good that students in these kind of fields learn about Body Integrity Identity Disorder. If more social workers were aware of BIID, perhaps more transabled folks would get better help sooner. My last experience with the mental health profession was meeting with a social worker at the community mental health clinic. It was not a good experience. There were many factors for that, but I can’t help thinking that had he known about BIID before I told him about it, he would have been better prepared to help. I shudder to think what the impact would have been on someone who is just learning about their own BIID.
I can’t help either telling the old joke that "I don’t need a social worker, my social life is just fine". Seriously, I doubt anyone in the mental health profession can *really* help with BIID. Or rather, they can no more cure us than a psychotherapist or a psychiatrist can cure us. However, they have their place. They *can* help those of us who haven’t reached that point to better accept ourselves. To let go of shame and guilt. To prompt us to think about what it means to us. These are mission critical aspects of our journey with BIID.
And there are going to be a few social workers coming out of schools in a couple years’ time that will have a bit more of a clue than many other people in that profession.
I can only lift my hat to the teacher for including BIID in the curriculum. I’ve written to her, but haven’t heard back yet. I’d like to know what is the approach taken to discuss BIID. I’d love to know the students’ reaction. Heck, I’d even invite some of these students to write about their learning about BIID and post it on this site. It could be interesting to learn the take on BIID from someone who’s new to the field and hasn’t had a real chance to get "tainted" by all and sundry.
Anyway, kudos for this!
Tags: BIID, Body Integrity Identity Disorder, Social Worker
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1 On 30 January, 2010, Sophie said:
Psyc students at Victoria University in NZ learn about Dr First and then subsequently about BIID being his “specialty”. I dunno what the other unis teach.