Staffs' documentation of participation for adults with profound intellectual disability or profound intellectual and multiple disabilities

Healthcare Professionals' Documentation in Supported Accommodation for People with Profound Intellectual Disabilities: An Educational Intervention Study

Good-quality relationships in which individuals with profound intellectual disabilities (intelligence quotient, IQ < 20-25) are recognized by healthcare professionals (HPs) are essential for the quality of healthcare and promoting autonomy. This study examines the impact of an educational intervention on documentation of the interplay between HP and individuals receiving services in supported accommodation in Norway. An educational intervention study was designed to encourage HPs to document their approaches and interplay. The Scale for the Evaluation of Staff-Patient Interactions in Progress Notes (SESPI) was applied to measure documentation before and after the intervention. Journal notes written over a three-month period before the intervention and a three-month period after the intervention were measured. Prior to the intervention, only 23.1% of the journal notes described the resident's experiences, increasing by 5.4% (p = 0.041) post-intervention. Practical solutions to individual experiences increased from 0.9% to 8.5% (p < 0.001). The educational intervention demonstrated a significant increase in the documentation of residents' experiences and the interplay between HPs and residents. Future research should explore the generalizability of these findings. Incomplete documentation of HPs' relational work conceals important aspects of the healthcare provided, potentially resulting in confining autonomy and participation for individuals with intellectual disabilities.

What's Good About Inclusion? An Ethical Analysis of the Ideal of Social Inclusion for People with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities

'Social inclusion' is the leading ideal in services and care for people with intellectual disabilities in most countries in the Global North. 'Social inclusion' can refer simply to full equal rights, but more often it is taken to mean something like 'community participation'. This narrow version of social inclusion has become so ingrained that it virtually goes unchallenged. The presumption appears to be that there is a clear moral consensus that this narrow understanding of social inclusion is good. However, that moral consensus is not clear in the case of people with profound intellectual and/or multiple disabilities (PIMD), who are not able to express their needs and preferences verbally. Moreover, social inclusion has proven to be difficult to conceptualize and implement for people with PIMD. Therefore, it becomes imperative to ask about the ethical rationale of the narrow understanding of social inclusion. For what reasons do we think social inclusion is good? And do those reasons also apply for people with PIMD? This article addresses these questions by providing an ethical analysis of the ideal of social inclusion for people with PIMD. It discusses four ethical arguments for social inclusion and probes their relevance for people with PIMD. The article argues that none of these arguments fully convince of the value of the narrow understanding of social inclusion for people with PIMD. It ends with advocating for an ethical space for imagining a good life for people with PIMD otherwise.

A microswitch-aided program to enable people with extensive multiple disabilities to control environmental stimulation through different responses

Objectives

This study assessed whether a simple technology-aided program (i.e., a program involving the use of microswitches linked to a smartphone) could be set up to enable people with motor, sensory and intellectual disabilities to control preferred environmental stimulation through two different response movements.

Methods

Ten participants were involved in the study. Each of them was exposed to an ABAB design, in which A represented baseline phases without the program and B intervention phases with the use of the program. The study assessed whether the participants (a) had significant increases of each of the two response movements available and/or showed response variability across sessions and over time and (b) had signs of satisfaction/happiness during the study sessions, in connection with their stimulation access and control.

Results

The program was effective in increasing the participants' responding and consequently their self-regulated stimulation input. Half of the participants showed a significant increase of both responses available from the first intervention phase. Other participants seemed to focus more on one of the two responses. Even so, they tended to have occasionally high performance frequencies also with regard to their non-dominant (not significantly increased) response. Finally, all participants showed clear signs of satisfaction/happiness during the intervention sessions.

Conclusions

The program represents a potentially useful approach for enabling people with extensive multiple disabilities to self-regulate their access to preferred environmental stimulation and improve their mood.

"It was one of those complicated cases": health practitioners' perspectives and practices of providing end-of-life care for people with profound intellectual and multiple disability

Background

Due to developments in health and social care, people with profound intellectual and multiple disability (PIMD) are living longer than ever before, meaning they are increasingly experiencing life-threatening health conditions requiring palliative care. Little is known about providing end-of-life care for people with PIMD. The aim of this study was to explore health practitioners’ perspectives and practices relating to end-of-life decision-making and planning for people with PIMD.

Methods

Seven in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with health practitioners employed in a range of hospital and community services throughout Melbourne, Australia. Questions were designed to gather information about their experience, perceptions, and attitudes relating to people with PIMD during and at the end of their life. Each interview, ranging from 40 to 60 min in length, was audio recorded and transcribed. Inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.

Results

Four main themes emerged: limited participation, bias, dignity, and quality of death. Health practitioners indicated that people with PIMD are frequently excluded from participating in decision-making related to end-of-life care. Participants discussed reasons for this exclusion including challenges with communication and cognition. Participants reported a need for additional support and guidance in providing care for people with PIMD at the end of life. Professional and family bias played a role in end-of-life decision-making for people with PIMD. Participants reported a disproportional focus by palliative care practitioners on physical as opposed to emotional and spiritual well-being for patients with PIMD at the end of life. Finally, participants reported that people with PIMD generally did not die in specialised palliative care settings, but in segregated supported living environments.

Conclusions

Due to negative perceptions of a person with PIMD’s decision-making capacity, people with PIMD are likely to be assessed as unable to express choice and preference regarding end-of-life care and are offered limited opportunity to be involved in their own end-of-life care. This research provides guidance for the development of training and professional development relating to people with PIMD at the end of life. It is hoped that this will increase the accessibility of end-of-life services for people with PIMD, ensuring that a respectful and dignified death can be a reality for all humankind regardless of disability.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12904-021-00873-5.

Collaboration and guidelines for the coordination of health care for frail older persons with intellectual disability: A national survey of nurses working in municipal care

AIMS

To describe and compare perceptions of collaboration between care providers on the part of three groups of Registered Nurses working in municipal care and having particular responsibility concerning the care of frail older people with intellectual disability (ID); and, furthermore, to investigate the presence of and compliance with guidelines for the coordination of care.

DESIGN

National survey study with cross-sectional design.

METHODS

Nurses (N = 110) with key positions concerning people with ID answered a national questionnaire about collaboration, guidelines and coordinated individual plans. Descriptive and comparative statistical analyses were applied.

RESULTS

The meetings on cooperation and coordination of interventions were attended most frequently by nurses, and least frequently by social workers. The nurses were overall satisfied with the collaboration but perceived shortcomings in the case of inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care. Only in about half of the meetings for making care plans participated the people with intellectual disability and next of kin.

Intervention effects on professionals' attitudes towards the participation of adults with visual and severe or profound intellectual disabilities

Background

We investigated the effects of the “Care for Participation+” (CFP+) intervention on direct support professionals’ (DSPs’) attitudes regarding the participation of adults with visual and severe or profound intellectual disabilities (VSPID).

Methods

We implemented a pilot non‐randomized controlled trial with two control groups to compare DSPs’ attitudes towards CFP+ using the Attitudes towards Participation Questionnaire (APQ) and DSPs’ written profiles of adults with VSPID.

Results

CPP+ and the Participation Mind Map control group showed a positive trend for the “leisure/recreation,” “social relations,” and “ability to act” APQ domains compared to the usual care control group. The CFP+ group described significantly fewer disabilities at 6 months, reflecting a more positive attitude than controls.

Conclusion

CFP+ had positive effects on DSPs’ attitudes towards the participation of adults with VSPID. The small sample size, ceiling effects, measurement instruments used, and implementation difficulties may have hampered understanding the full potential of CFP+.

Improving the participation of adults with visual and severe or profound intellectual disabilities: a process evaluation of a new intervention

BACKGROUND

While the participation of adults with visual and severe or profound intellectual disabilities (VSPID) in society and community life is important, evidence-based interventions to improve their participation are lacking. We conducted a process evaluation of the implementation of 'Care for Participation+' (CFP+), a new intervention targeting the attitudes of direct support professionals (DSPs) toward the participation of adults with VSPID, within a residential facility in the Netherlands.

METHODS

CFP+ was inspired by the Boston Psychiatric Rehabilitation Approach and adapted by adopting a new definition and operationalization of the concept of participation for adults with VSPID. Following systematic training, 16 DSPs of adults with VSPID were able to apply key elements of CFP+ to explore diverse roles and activities for this population, facilitating their self-management, teaching them necessary skills for participation, and organizing support. Our process evaluation entailed an investigation of the delivered dose, reach, fidelity, and adaptation of CFP+ during and after the CFP+ intervention. We also evaluated the mechanisms of impact and context using questionnaires, assignments, documentation, interviews, and a logbook.

RESULTS

The intended dose, reach, and fidelity relating to the implementation of CFP+ were not achieved. Despite this fact, an assessment of the mechanisms of impact indicated that assignments of CFP+ were well (75%) or reasonably well (17%) understood by DSPs. CFP+ was applied by DSPs to stimulate self-management (83% of DSPs), new activities (100%), enhanced involvement in existing activities (67%) and to explore new roles (50%) for adults with VSPID. A negative contextual factor mentioned by the trainer and manager was the DSPs' lack of commitment to the training program. Another negative contextual factor mentioned by DSPs was the lack of time for implementing CFP+.

CONCLUSIONS

CFP+ provides new opportunities to improve the participation of adults with VSPID. Despite the non-optimal conditions for implementing CFP+ and the DSPs' general reluctance to apply the new intervention, some have actively used CFP+ within the residential facility. Future studies should focus on the outcomes of CFP+ regarding attitudinal changes among DSPs relating to the participation of adults with VSPID and their quality of life.

Staff members and managers' views of the conditions for the participation of adults with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities

BACKGROUND

Participation is a central aspect of quality of life, and it is indicative of high-quality outcomes for people with intellectual disabilities. However, participation is difficult to achieve for adults with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities.

AIM

To describe staff members' perceptions of what participation means for adults with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities.

METHOD

Using a phenomenographic approach, 27 interviews were analysed resulting in variations in the conditions for participation.

RESULTS

The interviews revealed conditions for participation at individual, staff and organisational levels.

CONCLUSION

Participation appears to be an un-reflected phenomenon, and several conditions must be met to achieve it. The conditions are experienced being fundamental for adults within the target group to achieve any kind of participation. The staff members and managers' perceptions of participation as conditional can make it more difficult for adults within the target group to achieve the Swedish disability policy goal of participation.