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Spiritual care for people with intellectual and developmental disability: an exploratory study

  • Precious Sango
    ,
  • Rachel Forrester-Jones
Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Open access

Abstract

Background: A faith-based (pseudonym, Adam’s House – AH) and a non-faith-based care service (pseudonym, Greenleaves – GL) were explored to find out if and how spiritual support was provided for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs). Method: Six months were spent volunteering within each service and a mixed-methods approach was utilised including applied and ethnographic methods to explore and describe if and how spirituality was embedded within the two services. Results: Themes found included community of value; homely functional care; and barriers to spiritual care. GL staff tended to provide what we termed “religious spiritual care” while AH staff administered both “religious” and “non-religious” spiritual-based support. This difference may be related to the type of training found only at AH which included spiritual dimensions. Conclusion: Services could benefit from acknowledging the importance and significance of spiritual care training and education for effective and varied spiritual care for people with IDD who desire such support.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability (Volume 44, Issue 2)

Publication milestones

  • Published - 27/07/2017

Publication status

Published - 27/07/2017

ISSN

1366-8250

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/625306
  • Scopus: 85026394146

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