Attitudes of Direct Support Staff regarding Couple Relationships of Adults with Intellectual Disability: Implications for the Provision of Support

Abstract

A major role of direct support staff working with adults with intellectual disability (ID) is to promote their rights to a full life, including couple relationships. To tackle the complexity of direct support staff role perception, and by using qualitative methodology, the current study explored the attitudes of 40 direct support staff toward couple relationships of adults with ID. According to the results, couple relationships of adults with ID was perceived by them mainly as a means of achieving a more normative life style, rather than as a basic and legitimate need for meaningful interpersonal relations. They described couples with ID as having more difficulties than couples in the general population, and their own over-involvement in the relationship as an additional burden. The findings emphasize the importance of helping direct support staff adopt a broader conception of couple relationships and reexamine the strategies they apply to promote the accessibility of adults with ID to couple relationship. The role of social services in changing policy and practice is discussed accordingly. Future research should address other issues related to the attitudes of support staff toward couple relationships of adults with ID, such as sexuality and parenthood.