The experiences of psychologists working with people with intellectual disabilities during the COVID‐19 crisis

Abstract

Background The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of psychologists working with people with intellectual disabilities during the initial stage of the COVID‐19 lockdown in the Netherlands. Method Five psychologists, who were affiliated with three intellectual disability services, participated in this descriptive qualitative study. Overall, they recorded 22 audio messages during the period under examination, which were analysed using thematic analysis. Results Three themes were identified: (a) Working from home; (b) Adapting to the new reality; and (c) Advising and coaching support staff. Conclusions This study provides critical insights into the experiences of psychologists working with people with intellectual disabilities during the initial stage of the COVID‐19 lockdown. These insights can help policymakers and practitioners to prepare for either a potential second wave of COVID‐19 or a future pandemic.

Experiences of therapists conducting psychological assessments and video conferencing therapy sessions with people with mild intellectual disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…This form of data collection has been used effectively more often during the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g. Embregts et al 2021a , 2021b ; Nind et al 2020 ). Some brief topics (e.g.…”

“…The therapists were asked to reflect upon their experiences of conducting assessments and providing therapy through video conferencing during the first two months of the initial lockdown period in the Netherlands, which lasted from 16th March to 15th May, 2020. Similar to Embregts et al ’s ( 2021a , 2021b ) study, the participants self-recorded their experiences on their smartphone and sent the audio recording (mean duration for each participant: 12.8 min; SD = 5.3 ; range: 6.12-16.32) to the first author. When recording the audio message, the participants were offered the following topics to reflect on: 1) positive and negative experiences of using video conferencing, 2) factors that either facilitated or served as barriers to using video conferencing, and 3) what went well and what problems they encountered when using video conferencing.…”

“…Recently, Embregts et al ( 2021b ) explored the general experiences of five psychologists working online with people with intellectual disabilities during the initial lockdown in the Netherlands. These psychologists reported difficulties with picking up non-verbal cues and discussing sensitive topics, alongside technical difficulties associated with the lack of secure internet connections and devices at group homes, which undermined the ability of service users and staff to use video conferencing.…”

“…These psychologists reported difficulties with picking up non-verbal cues and discussing sensitive topics, alongside technical difficulties associated with the lack of secure internet connections and devices at group homes, which undermined the ability of service users and staff to use video conferencing. Although Embregts et al ’s ( 2021b ) study provides interesting insights into video conferencing from the perspective of psychologists, who experienced challenges in terms of both discussing sensitive topics with service users and keeping in contact with support staff in group homes, it would be noteworthy to specifically explore the experiences of therapists using video conferencing to conduct psychological assessments and therapy amongst people with mild intellectual disabilities. This is because therapists play a key role in terms of both the acceptance and implementation of a broad range of eHealth applications, including video conferencing (Henneman et al 2017 ).…”

Measuring working alliance and technical alliance from the perspective of healthcare professionals working with people with mild intellectual disabilities: adaptation, factor structure and reliability

“…Examples are the aid of avatars in digital stories within a computerised cognitive behavioural therapy session (Cooney et al 2018), receiving practical and emotional professional support by telecare (Zaagsma et al 2021) and working with a tablet that visualises a task to support task completion independently (Shepley et al 2018). This trend was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic (Chadwick et al 2022;Embregts et al 2022). In line with the limited knowledge on working alliance in face-to-face contact, even less is known about these factors when the supportive or therapeutic contact is facilitated by an eHealth tool.…”