| dc.description.abstract | Abstract
Background
People with an intellectual disability often require carers to provide
assistance in their basic living needs and to help them achieve the best quality
of life possible. The increased prevalence of dementia in people with an
intellectual disability over recent years has prioritised the importance of
research into the impact this has had on people with an intellectual disability
with dementia, their carers, and their support services. There has been a lack
of qualitative studies investigating the experiences of carers for people with an
intellectual disability and dementia and their perceptions of services that
support them to carry out their role. These carers fulfil an important need within
the community and this study explored family and paid carers’ experiences of
caring for people who have an intellectual disability with dementia.
Method
This paper describes a qualitative study that used semistructured
interviews to investigate both paid and family carer’s experiences of caring for
people with an intellectual disability with dementia. Face-to-face interviews
were conducted with 12 carers and the resulting data were analysed using
thematic analysis.
Results
The analysis generated 9 meta-themes including a carer’s identity,
transitions in the carer experience, self-care, difficulties in caring, changes to
services, recommendations for change, barriers to accessing carer support,
sources of support and resources, and sharing carers’ best practice.
Conclusions
The implications of the results are discussed and recommendations for future research are provided. | en_GB |
