Ageing of people with an intellectual disability: Effective training for frontline workers

Adrienne Mcghee,Pat Dorsett

doi:10.36251/josi.25

Abstract

Abstract While the attainment of late life represents a significant achievement for people with an intellectual disability, increased life expectancy has resulted in growing concerns about the extent to which disability service providers are ready to meet the changing needs of increasing numbers of older people and facilitate their ongoing social inclusion. Training of frontline disability staff is widely accepted as an effective strategy for increasing organisational capacity to contribute to improved quality of life for people with an intellectual disability. The study identifies training needs analyses and 'ready-to-deliver' training programs for frontline disability services staff working with adults with an intellectual disability who are ageing, assesses whether the training programs contribute to improved quality of life outcomes for service users, and makes recommendations for future research and development of training for disability services staff who work with older people with intellectual disability. Keywords: intellectual disability, ageing, staff training, service provider, quality of life, social inclusion

Highlights

While the attainment of late life represents a significant achievement for people with an intellectual disability, increased life expectancy has resulted in growing concerns about the extent to which disability service providers are ready to meet the changing needs of increasing numbers of older people and facilitate their ongoing social inclusion
An item was included in the review if: a) it focused on people with an intellectual/lifelong/developmental/learning disability for whom ageing was a concern; b) older people with intellectual disability were discussed within the context of disability service provision; and c) the focus of the publication was about the development, or delivery and evaluation, of ready-to-deliveriii training programs for frontline staff working with older people with intellectual disability
The introduction to this review identified several frameworks and themes within the literature on intellectual disability and ageing that propose desirable quality-of-life outcomes for older people with intellectual disability

Summary

Introduction

While the attainment of late life represents a significant achievement for people with an intellectual disability, increased life expectancy has resulted in growing concerns about the extent to which disability service providers are ready to meet the changing needs of increasing numbers of older people and facilitate their ongoing social inclusion. Emphasis on ageing in place for people with intellectual disabilities may be due, in part, to research findings that indicate living in residential aged care facilities often results in poorer-than-average quality-of-life outcomes for this group (Jones, 2006; Thompson, Ryrie & Wright, 2004; Winkler, Farnworth & Sloan, 2006) Supporting this group to age in place within disability services is generally considered to be a more appropriate alternative than transferring them to residential aged care prior to becoming frail aged (see Bigby, 2004; Hales, Ross & Ryan, 2006)

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Discussion

Conclusion