Perspectives about support challenges facing health workers assisting older adults with and without intellectual disability in rural versus urban settings in Australia
Aims: Life expectancy for both sexes in Australia exceeds 80 years, with individuals with intellectual disability also increasingly living into older age. This research aimed to comparatively examine perceptions of staff supporting either older adults or age peers with lifelong intellectual disability. Methods: This project asked 420 medical, health, and support workers about training adequacy, health services access, and trigger points for premature institutionalisation. This paper is based on a subsample of 196 respondents who provided quantitative and qualitative responses. Results: There was considerable variation in confidence in supporting ageing individuals, while only 23.7% of doctors reported their training was adequate to support adults ageing with intellectual disability. A lack of services and poor carer health were identified as triggers for premature institutionalisation. Conclusions: The study revealed key differences in staff perceptions of support provision and training adequacy when comparing ageing individuals with intellectual disability to the general ageing population.
Securing Personal Input From Individuals Aging with Intellectual Disability: Do Differing Methodologies Produce Equivalent Information?
Research is limited on whether differing methodologies for facilitating personal contributions from individuals aging with intellectual disability produce equivalent knowledge outcomes. Two matched purpose-developed tools examined five quality-of-life domains. Results showed substantial variance between qualitative interview responses and Likert-scale data, and indicate validity concerns for using either methodology in isolation.
Ageing-related experiences of adults with learning disability resident in rural areas: one Australian perspective
Background: Access to support services in rural areas is known to be problematic both in Australia, and in other countries around the world, but the majority of research on the population of people ageing with learning disability has so far focussed on metropolitan residents. The authors report about select aspects of the lived experience of older adults with learning disability resident in rural locations in two states of Australia. Materials and Methods: This pilot project examined data drawn from 34 semi-structured interviews conducted with 17 older adults and 17 carers. Responses were analysed for thematic areas. Results: It was observed that the capacity of certain rural areas to support meaningful choice-making was limited due to constraints of access to key services, including community-based aged care, generic and specialist health services, and both supported disability and aged-care residential options. Responses indicated that those living in both small- and medium-sized congregate care settings (such as group homes and residential aged-care facilities) had more limited choices and only partial (if any) control over their living situation. Conclusion: An understanding of the needs of older adults with learning disability resident in rural areas is important to ensure that both aged-care and disability support structures are built on individuals' needs.