Investigating the experience of professional carers supporting individuals with intellectual disability who were at risk of admission – a qualitative study
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AMHID-08-2022-0029 |
| Published date | 19 January 2023 |
| Date | 19 January 2023 |
| Pages | 37-46 |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Learning & intellectual disabilities |
| Author | Mizla Manandhar-Richardson,Ceri Woodrow,Georgia Cooper-Taylor |
Investigating the experience of
professional carers supporting individuals
with intellectual disability who were at risk
of admission –a qualitative study
Mizla Manandhar-Richardson, Ceri Woodrow and Georgia Cooper-Taylor
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to understand the experiences of professional paid carers prov iding community
support to people with intellectual disability ‘‘at risk of ad mission’’. This study explores factors that were helpful
or lacking in terms of the support the carers received fr om NHS health services during this time.
Design/methodology/approach –This study conducted semi-structured interview with eigh t participants.
Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.
Findings –Three main themes and tensubthemes were identified. The first main theme was ‘‘support
systems’’ that were available or lacking for the client and their carers. The second main theme was
‘‘training and supervision’’ available to the carers and their team when the individual they supported
needed additional support.The third theme was ‘‘change’’ clients encountered which includedchanges
in the environmentas well as changes because of COVID-19pandemic.
Originality/value –To the best of the authors’knowledge, this is the first study on experiences of carers during
specifically highstress periods, such as when the clients they are supporting are at risk of hospital admission.
Keywords Transforming care agenda, Care and treatmentreview, Carers, Dynamic support database,
National health service, Intensive support service, Intensive support team, Learning disability,
Hospital admission, NHS England, Intellectual disability, Intensive support function
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
It is estimated that there are 1.5 million people in the UK with an intellectual disability
(Hassiotis et al.,2021), of whom approximately 1.1 million are adults (Mencap, 2021). As
few as 1 in 4 people with intellectual disabilities (ID) may be formally registered with health
services (Hatton et al., 2016). Following the investigation of severe abuse of patients at
Winterbourne View and other similar hospitals in 2011, there has been a national
commitment to improve and transform care for people with ID, both within inpatient
environments and the community (Bubb, 2014). This commitment focuses on increasing
community capacity and reducinginappropriate admissions. This led to the development of
the Transforming Care Agenda followed by the Care and Treatment Review: Policy and
Guidance document (NHS England, 2015a,2015b,2015c;NHS England, 2017). The care
and treatment review policies state that localclinical commissioning groups (CCG) (as they
were known at the time) should keep an up-to-date, “dynamic”, register of individuals with
ID and autism who may be at risk of admission to a mentalhealth hospital.
In response, our NHS Mental Health Trust in the North West of England developed the Dynamic
Support Database (DSD) –Clinical Support Tool (CST) to enable the implementation of the
(Informationabout the
authorscan be found at the
end of this article.)
Received 31 August 2022
Revised 24 November 2022
Accepted 20 December 2022
With thanks to Pennine Care
NHS Foundation Trust
researchers and clinicians for
support with data analysis.
DOI 10.1108/AMHID-08-2022-0029 VOL. 17 NO. 1 2023, pp. 37-46, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2044-1282 jADVANCES IN MENTAL HEALTH AND INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES jPAGE 37
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