“Healthy Start.” A National Strategy for Parents With Intellectual Disabilities and Their Children

Abstract

Parents with intellectual disabilities, like all other parents, need support with child rearing. Often this support comes from family and friends, but in the case of parents with intellectual disabilities, they are more likely to have to rely on the service system. Research from a number of countries demonstrates that there is limited system capacity to support these parents. There are few appropriate services, and practitioners are generally ill-equipped to meet the parents' particular learning and support needs. In response, the Australian government has funded a capacity-building model known as Healthy Start: A national strategy for children of parents with intellectual disabilities, as part of its Stronger Families and Communities Strategy. This paper presents this model for building systems capacity that, in brief, addresses on the one hand, practitioner commitment, knowledge, and skills, and on the other, the parent education and community development resources needed to support parents with intellectual disability and promote a healthy start to life for their young children. The model involves the development of local leaders and practitioner networks in addition to dissemination of knowledge and innovation to support evidence-based practice. Innovative, cross-disciplinary, and inter-sectoral practitioner networks are at the heart of this capacity-building model. These networks bridge the gap between research knowledge and practitioner knowledge as a basis for planning and coordinating local service development.

Chronic Neglect and Services Without Borders: A Guiding Model for Social Service Enhancement to Address the Needs of Parents With Intellectual Disabilities

“…Alternative timelines for PID treatment are crucial. Dissemination of these intervention programs has begun to occur (Horwitz, Chamberlain, Landsverk, & Mullican, 2010; McConnell, Matthews, Llewellyn, Mildon, & Hindmarsh, 2008), however, more widespread adoption is needed.…”

The Impact of Emotional Abuse on Psychological Distress among Child Protective Services-Involved Adolescents with Borderline-to-Mild Intellectual Disability

“…As lower intellectual functioning can be more prominent in socioeconomically disadvantaged families (Emerson & Hatton, 2007;McConnell, Matthews, Llewellyn, Mildon, & Hindmarsh, 2008), and such families are more visible to child protective services (Butchart, 2008;Coulton, Crampton, Irwin, Spillsbury, & Korbin, 2007), ID represents an under-attended victim characteristic that may impact the level of maltreatment-related impairment. In a population study of youth (up to 21 years of age) in Omaha, ID was identified in 25.3% of all maltreated youth with disabilities, second only to behavioral disorders (at 37.4% of all maltreated students with disabilities; Sullivan & Knutson, 2000).…”

Good, Bad or Absent: Discourses of Parents with Disabilities in Australian News Media

“…), recognized as integral to family well‐being and decreased adverse events (see McConnell et al . ). Broader discourses of parents with intellectual disabilities across public settings in several countries contest the ability of this group to effectively care for children, suggesting that the decision to parent should not be made by a person with intellectual disability (Sigurjónsdóttir & Traustadóttir ; Reinders ).…”

“…This perception is prevalent, despite growing knowledge of parents with intellectual disabilities who parent successfully (Tymchuk ; IASSID Special Interest Research Group on Parents & Parenting with Intellectual Disabilities ) and growing social and community support networks, bodies and programs that assist parents with intellectual disabilities in raising their children (http://www.healthystart.net.au; McConnell et al . ).…”