Interdependence is a call for action to the human services - a prescription for a renewed sense of partnership. Recognizing the limitations of the medical/expert approaches that have dominated the care and treatment of the physically challenged, Interdependence suggests a blending of actions that are rooted in the values of self-esteem, and actualized in the community. This powerful presentation explores the goals of human services, how and why the medical/expert paradigm has not done the job, and then introduces the interdependent paradigm as an alternative approach to human service.

Driven from a values base, Interdependence: The Route to Community is a service system framework that interprets a new approach for the ways in which people relate and the ways our society addresses social issues. Recognizing the limitations of the medical/expert approach, the book offers a new prescription for change based on partnership. This penetrating, often hard-hitting exploration of the goals of human services clears the air on how and why the current medical/expert paradigm has failed. Here is the introduction to the independent paradigm-an alternative approach to how people and systems can relate. The book focuses on a new plan of action for reestablishing the individual with his or her community and enhancing personal lives through a sense of similarity, rather than difference: Who should read this book? Educators, counselors, physicians, nurses, administrators, people with disabilities, family members, community and religious leaders, engineers, government officials, and politicians. This book is to be read and applied, not merely read.