The Specialist Care of People with Intellectual Disability as they Grow Older: Poster Presentation

Rachel Forrester-Jones, Magali Barnoux, David Oliver

Research output: Contribution to conferenceAbstractpeer-review

Abstract


Background: People with intellectual disability are growing older and there are increasing issues of associated age-related diseases especially dementia, particularly with dementia seen at an earlier age in Down’s syndrome. A specialist residential home for older people with ID and multiple needs, including dementia, has been developed as one of the first specialist nursing establishment of its kind in the UK.
Aim: To assess the involvement of the residents in their care and their quality of life and level of socialisation.
Method: The residents were assessed using the Social Network Guide, which maps the residents social networks and social support, DEMQOL, which allows assessment of quality of life for people with dementia and the Resident Choice Scale, which assesses opportunities for self determination.
Results: 13 residents were assessed. The number of individuals in each resident’s network was a mean 9.8 (range 3 to 20), the DEMQOL-Proxy gave a health-related quality of life score of mean 112 (range 107-120), the Resident Choice Scale showed scores of over 3 out of 5 for 16 of the 26 items, showing good involvement and that they were able to make day to day choices.
Conclusion: The social network for the residents was less than in other studies of ID where the average was 22 and only 2% of the contacts were from people outside the home. However the home would appear to provide care where the residents were able to remain involved with others, express control on many of their activities and have a good quality of life. Further studies are being undertaken to assess the staff involvement and views of the care involved.
Original languageEnglish
Pages165-166
Number of pages2
Publication statusPublished - 11 Apr 2015
Event14th World Congress of the European Association of Palliative Care: Building Bridges - Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Duration: 8 May 201510 May 2015

Conference

Conference14th World Congress of the European Association of Palliative Care
Country/TerritoryDenmark
CityCopenhagen
Period8/05/1510/05/15

Keywords

  • palliative care
  • intellectual disability
  • carers

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