Service Utilization Patterns of Adults with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

The increasing ethnic diversity in the U.S. population raises important challenges for community service systems. Little is known about the extent to which service systems meet the needs of different communities of color. This paper examines service utilization and unmet needs of Puerto Rican adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) in comparison to non-Latino white adults with ID to understand better the experiences of midlife and aging families from diverse backgrounds who have entered the service system. In addition, we examine the relationship of maternal support groups to service utilization and unmet service needs. We hypothesize that support groups would be an important resource for Puerto Rican mothers of adults with ID in facilitating greater use of formal services and decreasing the level of unmet service needs for their son or daughter with ID. Findings indicate that Puerto Rican adults with ID in this study had more severe impairments, received a comparable number of services, and had higher unmet service needs than non-Latino white adults with ID. In the multivariate analysis we examined factors that contribute to service utilization and unmet need for each group. We found that maternal support group participation was a significant predictor of greater service utilization and lower unmet need for Puerto Rican adults with ID, but not for non-Latino whites. These findings suggest that offering caregiver support groups may be a culturally relevant way for service systems to reach out to Puerto Rican families.