Transitions in the Lives of Older Adults With Intellectual Disabilities: “Having a Sense of Dignity and Independence”

Abstract

Older people with intellectual disabilities (ID) experience numerous transitions in their lives, which include transitions between jobs, places of residence, relationship transitions, and transitions to retirement. Ensuring quality planning for the future is important so that older people with ID can live good lives. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore planning for the future and transitions experienced by older people with ID. The author conducted semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with 17 people with ID aged 40 years and more. The interviews were analyzed using inductive content analysis. The three main themes were types of transitions, planning for future, and barriers to planning for future. The implications for research and practice are discussed, with a focus on enhancing independence and choice‐making.

Transitioning to long-term care for older adults with intellectual disabilities: A concept analysis

“…Transitions among older adults with intellectual disabilities was explored by Strnadová (2019) who presents types of transitions in later life involving relationships, residential, work, retirement, and health. As far as the author is aware, this is the only concept analysis to address residential transitions in later life experienced by individuals with intellectual disabilities.…”

Transitions in lives of people with intellectual disability

“…Moving beyond transitions to post‐school life, the transition literature is limited. For example, transition to becoming an older adult (Strnadová, 2019), to retirement (Wilson et al, 2010), or transitions to post‐parental care (Garnham et al, 2019) deserve more attention. Yet, there are so many transitions experienced by people with intellectual disability (as also evidenced by the transition stories presented at the last section of this editorial).…”

Experiencias de personas adultas con discapacidad intelectual sobre el derecho a la vida independiente: Un estudio de caso

“…De lo contrario, la vida independiente quedaría reducida a las capacidades personales más que a la provisión de apoyos. Partiendo de estas premisas, los expertos han identificado tres elementos imprescindibles para el desempeño de la independencia personal (Dimitriadou, 2020;Dimitriadou y Kartasidou, 2017;Strnadová, 2019): la inclusión en el entorno comu-nitario, la individualización de los apoyos recibidos y la autonomía para la toma de decisiones orientada al control de la propia vida. Al alero de estos elementos, a nivel internacional se han diseñado algunas iniciativas para el fomento de la vida independiente en personas con discapacidad intelectual.…”