Personal relationships and sexuality

‘Being there’: the Experiences of Staff in Dealing with Matters of Dying and Death in Services for People with Intellectual Disabilities

“…). How such services deal with important thorny issues such as having a sexual life (Craft & Brown ), supporting resident bereavement, developing friendships (Emerson & McVilly ) and incorporate spirituality (Gaventa ) all add to the post‐institutional vibrancy of this field of study. To this should be added death and dying.…”

‘Now I’d like to sleep with Rachael’ – researching sexuality support in a service agency group home

“…'We had to give them privacy' also resonates with the view that workers see themselves as protectors, interveners, advocates and empowerers for those they support and as having a key responsibility towards the personal integrity and safety of those they work with (Craft and Brown 1994). However, overall, workers talk revealed that when the intellectually disabled people they worked with were deemed incapable no assistance to develop an intimate relationship was considered necessary and none was offered (Hamilton 2007).…”

“…At these times proactive support seems to be compromised by an irreconcilable conflict between unhelpful negative values and attitudes said to be held by individual workers and the broader concepts of freedom of choice and dignity of risk that underpin the positive responses workers make to the notion of providing sexuality assistance (Murray and Minnes 1994). With respect to this conflict, researchers have recommended that service personnel need to be encouraged to begin the reflective process necessary to change their attitudes and practices (Craft and Brown 1994). This would enable workers to re-vision their role as one of models, teachers and counsellors in relation to those they work with and would assist them in developing the competence to assume a teaching and liaison position when necessary.…”

“…This would enable workers to re-vision their role as one of models, teachers and counsellors in relation to those they work with and would assist them in developing the competence to assume a teaching and liaison position when necessary. It is also recommended that workers begin to view themselves as protectors, interveners, advocates and empowerers for the intellectually disabled people they work with and as having a key responsibility towards their personal integrity and safety in this area (Craft and Brown 1994). However, these recommendations have yet to have a widespread impact on support practice (Clements, Clare, and Ezelle 1995;Chai 2004).…”

“…Yet institutional placement was also used as protection for community members against the possible sexual threat people in this group posed to non-intellectually disabled others (Craft and Brown 1994). While the 'protection from' vision of placement upheld the incapacity position, institutionalisation because people were seen as a sexual threat concedes the presence of an equally strong 'they're sexual' counterpointed series of beliefs, also influential in the instigation of this punitive support option.…”