Impact of Policy Shifts on South Asian Carers in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this study was to assess how the introduction of new service policies in the United Kingdom – such as person‐centered planning and the active development of support networks – was impacting the lives of carers of people with intellectual disability from South Asian backgrounds. Using a semistructured interview schedule, 19 families of South Asian background living in an urban conurbation were interviewed about their service use and needs with respect to providing care for their family member with an intellectual disability. The families experienced material disadvantage, poor health, and did not access services to the same extent as did the general population in the UK. Overall, community participation was low and only two individuals with an intellectual disability had a care plan as outlined in the latest UK government policies. The introduction of these new policies did not appear to have positively impacted the lives of the individuals interviewed in this study. The results were similar to findings of studies in other parts of Britain: that is, the culture of caring and protecting the individual with an intellectual disability, combined with the importance of family life over an outside social life, ran somewhat counter to the underlying principles of current national disability policy (i.e., promoting individual rights and independent living). It is suggested that attempts to implement these policies risks alienating carers of South Asian descent from service providers and their implementation must be done in a culturally sensitively context.