Support workers and people with learning disabilities: participative and life history research

Abstract

Support workers have more day‐to‐day contact with people with a learning disability than any other group of staff, but a high proportion are unqualified and untrained, and there are problems in recruitment and retention. This paper uses undisclosed participant observation and life history methods to analyse the experiences of a support worker in six agencies that provide community‐based care for people with learning disabilities. It was found that a lack of training is associated with limited awareness of the needs of people with learning disabilities, and contributes to stress among staff. Some support workers manage stress by disengaging from their clients. Person‐centred approaches had limited impact, and even agencies committed to person‐centred planning can be reluctant to implement it with clients with severely impaired communication. The greatest commitment to staff induction and training and person‐centred approaches was found in small organisations managed by families. It is possible that large residential care providers are more likely than small agencies to have extended lines of management and standardised procedures, and further research is needed to assess whether these factors are associated with disempowerment of staff and clients.