To anticipate and provide for quality care supports, there is a need to establish proactive initiatives, for both people with an intellectual disability and their families', to facilitate the early formation of long-term care plans.
While family proximity and community living are associated with improved social networks and contacts, older people with intellectual disability remain worse off than the general older population.
This paper sets out a systematic review of empirically evaluated intervention studies and structured models/ frameworks of future care planning for adults with intellectual disability by family carers. The failure to adequately plan for when they are older is one of the key barriers to successful ageing for people with an intellectual disability (McCallion & Nickle, 2008). Given that the majority of families intend to provide lifelong support at home for loved ones with intellectual disabilities and that people with intellectual disabilities themselves largely wish to remain in the family home (McConkey, McConaghie, Barr, & Roberts, 2006), it is essential that families engage in future care planning "if crisis situations are to be avoided, particularly the double shock… of losing their home at a time when they are also bereaved"(Gorfin & McGlaughlin, 2004). Furthermore, the need for general engagement in future planning is exacerbated by macro-level factors of ageing populations and post-institutionalization policy and service contexts which will likely lead to more people with intellectual disabilities ageing in a family care environment in the future. At the same time, increased life expectancy for people with intellectual disabilities
Background
Adults with an intellectual disability (ID) have much lower rates of employment than their counterparts without intellectual disability, which increases their risk of poverty and social exclusion. Differential treatment of people with intellectual disability in welfare and training policies suggests an expectation they will be passive welfare recipients rather than productive employees.
Methods
This paper aims to examine occupational activities by older people with intellectual disability in Ireland, exploring factors influencing outcomes using data from the IDS‐TILDA study (n = 708).
Results
Most people were unemployed but engaged in regular occupational activity. Occupational activity was associated with better emotional/mental health. Activities of Daily Living (ADL) functioning was associated with an active occupational status, while social supports most strongly predicted high occupational engagement across a range of activities.
Conclusions
A focus on the individual meaning derived from a broad range of engagement may better support people with intellectual disabilities to benefit from regular occupational activity.
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