Attitudes of Catholic religious orders towards children and adults with an intellectual disability in postcolonial Ireland

SWEENEY J. Nursing Inquiry 2010; 17 : 95–110
Attitudes of Catholic religious orders towards children and adults with an intellectual disability in postcolonial Ireland The purpose of this paper is to examine the intersecting roles of Catholic religious orders and psychiatrists in the development of residential care for people with an intellectual disability in Ireland during the fifty‐year period after political autonomy from the UK in 1922. The context is the postcolonial development of the country and the crucial role played by the Catholic Church through several of its religious orders in developing and staffing intellectual disability services. The paper will consider the divergent positions of church and psychiatry in the foundation and contemporary position of what was originally known as the care of people with a mental handicap nursing in the 1960s. The development of this form of nursing during the mid‐twentieth century can be seen as part of a wider postcolonial response to health and social care by the newly independent Irish state. The author argues that intellectual disability nursing in Ireland has been nuanced by association with the nation’s struggle for self‐determination from colonial oppression through adoption of a religious identity. This conflation of education and social care combined with a specific form of Catholic nursing has left an enduring legacy on the service provision to people with an intellectual disability in contemporary Ireland.     

Facilitating employment opportunities for adults with intellectual and developmental disability through parents and social networks

Purpose: People with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) have historically had high unemployment and underemployment rates and continue to face significant barriers to attaining and sustaining employment. The purpose of this research, conducted in Ontario, Canada was to better understand the experiences of people with IDD gaining and keeping productivity roles. Method: We used qualitative semi-structured interviews with 74 participants with IDD and their families or caregivers as proxies regarding the employment of a person with IDD. We selected a sample of persons from three different geographic regions in Ontario, Canada, and analyzed data through coding methods consistent with a grounded theory approach. Results: Our results demonstrate the importance of parents and other members of social and family networks relative to connecting with work options and sustaining work over time, especially through continued advocacy and investment. Parents helped individuals with IDD negotiate the right job fit, though they often encountered challenges as a result of their efforts. Conclusion: Practitioners must understand how to support parents to be effective advocates for their adult children with IDD, assist them to develop and maintain their social networks and help them to avoid caregiver burnout.

• Implications for Rehabilitation

• People with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) face numerous challenges in indentifying work options and overcoming barriers to employment.

• Parents and other non-paid support members of social networks can be instrumental in ensuring that persons with IDD not only secure initial job placements, but also sustain employment and employment alternatives.

• Professionals that support persons with IDD can direct their efforts to helping persons with IDD develop strong social connections, as well as helping parents to prevent burnout.

     

Mental health inpatient experiences of adults with intellectual disability

This paper presents findings from a study exploring the mental health inpatient care of people with a dual disability of intellectual disability and mental health issues from the perspective of those people with the dual disability. A mixture of semi‐structured interviews and focus group interviews were carried out with nine participants who had been admitted to an inpatient unit for mental health care exploring their experience of care. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using open coding and Leximancer (an online data mining tool) analysis to identify dominant themes in the discourse. Analysis revealed themes around ‘Therapeutic and Meaningful Activity’, ‘Emotion Focussed Care’, and ‘Feeling Safe?’ Participants were able to identify the aspects of inpatient care that worked for them in terms of coping with time in hospital. This research suggests that there are several factors that should be considered in providing effective mental health inpatient care for people with dual disability. A number of strategies and recommendations for responding to their needs are identified and discussed.