Ageing with a learning disability: Care and support in the context of austerity
Ageing with a learning disability: Care and support in the context of austerity
Recent work in geography has begun to look at the opportunities for care from siblings, friends and neighbours alongside parents and spouses. This paper examines the daily relationships that middle to older age adults with a learning disability have with remaining kin members, friends, and neighbours, within the context of declining formal day services. Adults with learning disabilities are likely to have different life course experiences and be living on low incomes and in poor housing than the rest of the population as they have had less opportunity to work and save money through their lives. We draw on two qualitative studies with adults with learning disabilities. Findings suggest that friend and kin networks are anything but certain, as opportunities to meet and socialise shrink, and connections with siblings do not necessarily lend themselves to support. The findings raise the possibility of a space of attenuated care to convey the increasingly limited fronts from which support can be derived.
Welfare, Community, Disability, informal care, friendship, neighbourhood, UK, participatory methods
55-61
Power, Andrew
b3a1ee09-e381-413a-88ac-7cb3e13b3acc
Bartlett, Ruth
b059d54d-9431-43a8-9d1d-19d35ab57ac3
June 2019
Power, Andrew
b3a1ee09-e381-413a-88ac-7cb3e13b3acc
Bartlett, Ruth
b059d54d-9431-43a8-9d1d-19d35ab57ac3
Power, Andrew and Bartlett, Ruth
(2019)
Ageing with a learning disability: Care and support in the context of austerity.
Social Science & Medicine, 231, .
(doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.03.028).
Abstract
Recent work in geography has begun to look at the opportunities for care from siblings, friends and neighbours alongside parents and spouses. This paper examines the daily relationships that middle to older age adults with a learning disability have with remaining kin members, friends, and neighbours, within the context of declining formal day services. Adults with learning disabilities are likely to have different life course experiences and be living on low incomes and in poor housing than the rest of the population as they have had less opportunity to work and save money through their lives. We draw on two qualitative studies with adults with learning disabilities. Findings suggest that friend and kin networks are anything but certain, as opportunities to meet and socialise shrink, and connections with siblings do not necessarily lend themselves to support. The findings raise the possibility of a space of attenuated care to convey the increasingly limited fronts from which support can be derived.
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Accepted/In Press date: 16 March 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 17 March 2018
Published date: June 2019
Keywords:
Welfare, Community, Disability, informal care, friendship, neighbourhood, UK, participatory methods
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Local EPrints ID: 419306
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/419306
ISSN: 0277-9536
PURE UUID: eaa32e75-bc58-4358-bce6-9842081b80a0
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Date deposited: 10 Apr 2018 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 06:26
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