Profile of health, medical and psychological concerns of ageing family members and older adult children with ID: Qualitative community-dwelling study

Abstract

Introduction: Health and medical problems among people suffering from intellectual disability (ID) have been reported. However, the extent of such health, medical and psychological concerns have been overlooked among those ageing adults with ID and their ageing family carers who live at home.

Method: This paper aimed to provide a profile of health, medical and psychological concerns matched against the socio-demographic data from a recently completed qualitative study of 60 family carers and their adult children with mild (IQ 50-69) or moderate (IQ 25-49) ID using sheltered workshops in Hong Kong. Semi-structured interviews lasted 45-90 minutes were used to explore the in-depth caregiving experiences from carers.

Results: An in-depth profile of concerns matched against the socio-demographic data of family carers and their adult children with mild or moderate ID will be presented. Adults with ID had different health caring needs that continued to linger and increased in older adulthood. They needed to visit the doctor and had regular follow-up for medical and psychological health problems. Many of them had difficulties in visiting the doctor and receiving treatment. They needed extra attention from caregivers to observe health changes, provide emotional support and deal with behavioural problems. Ageing caregivers confronted increasing challenges in providing care to their ageing ID family members with physical and mental degeneration. They expressed hopes for more medical and psychological support in order to receive regular health check, dental care, emotion training, counseling service, medical allowance, escort service and medical home visits.

Conclusion: Medical and psychological health declines make caregiving became a much more difficult task. There is an important need to make recommendations on timely and appropriate support targeted on their actual health caring needs with advancing age.