Sexuality and individual support plans for people with intellectual disabilities

Abstract

Background Sexual rights and sexuality are important aspects of quality of life, also for people with intellectual disabilities (IDs). However, providing support in this area to people with ID poses some challenges. In this study, the content of individual support plan (ISP) documents was analysed to determine the extent to which sexuality and sexual rights are addressed in part of the ISP documents. Method Content analysis was carried out on a sample of 187 ISP documents from seven different service provider organisations in the Netherlands. First, we conducted a lexical search using terms related to sexuality and sexual health. The retrieved segments were then analysed. Results A total of 159 ISP documents (85%) of 60 men and 99 women contained some reference to aspects of sexuality. However, these references were mostly descriptive and offered little guidance in terms of providing support. Moreover, these notations mostly described negative or problematic aspects of sexuality. References to sexual education, treatment,

Consensus‐based good practice guidelines for clinical psychologists to support care staff in enabling sexual expression in people with intellectual disabilities—A Delphi study

“…Many panel members reported encountering service‐providers and managers who were reluctant or avoidant of establishing sex and relationship policies, guidance or care planning for the organization. This reflects recent research (Alexander & Taylor Gomez, ; Stoffelen et al, ) and provides a considerable systemic obstacle to care staff—they are either left to act “alone” on personal beliefs, feeling uncertain or unprotected (Alexander & Taylor Gomez, ), or they fall in line with what they perceive the organization's (often restrictive) beliefs to be (Grace et al, ). Guideline six identifies the importance of gaining explicit understanding of the views and beliefs of the organization as a whole, ensuring it is appropriate, and then getting them to commit to its implementation in a clear and transparent way.…”

“…Perhaps this is why policies that do exist are all too often vague, restrictive and focus on sexual offending and abuse (Abbott & Howarth, ; Kelly et al, ; Winges‐Yanez, ). Care plans that make reference to sexuality tend to have a similarly narrow focus (Stoffelen et al, ). More needs to be done to close the gap between UK policy and support in practice.…”

Views on Sex Using the Nominal Group Technique to Explore Sexuality and Physical Intimacy in Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities

“…Other studies have also shown that people with an ID indicate that they need support when it comes to sexuality [3,17,37,45]. This calls for a support plan that pays attention to sexuality and sexual health [46].…”

Sexualidade e deficiência intelectual: revisão integrativa da literatura

“…Estudos que utilizaram estratégias educativas junto às pessoas com deficiência (16,25) constataram que explicações sistematizadas sobre sexualidade, demonstrações técnicas e uma constante apropriação de conceitos podem originar significados mais elaborados. A dificuldade de obter e reter informações, característica peculiar das pessoas com deficiência intelectual, requer processos contínuos de educação em sexualidade para manter altos níveis de habilidades e conhecimentos (26)(27) .…”