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Support staff working in intellectual disability services: the importance of relationships and positive experiences
- Author:
- HASTINGS Richard P.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 35(3), September 2010, pp.207-210.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
The author discusses the lack of research on the role of paid support staff working in intellectual disability services, focusing in particular on the lack of attention to theory and to building a theoretical/conceptual understanding of the role they fulfil. A brief overview is given of research in this field to date. The author suggests that there are two priorities for future research on support staff. These are to understand the relationships formed between support staff and individuals with intellectual disability and understanding the positive contributions that staff perceive that they benefit from directly as a result of their work. He indicates that there are some synergies between research agendas relating to support staff and family carers. It is suggested that finding out why support staff stay in their roles when aspects of their work are stressful, poorly paid, and often poorly supported, might lead down very different roots for practice than the more negatively focused questions such as why staff become stressed at work and why they leave their roles.
Psychological acceptance mediates the impact of the behaviour problems of children with intellectual disability on fathers' psychological adjustment
- Authors:
- MACDONALD Elaine E., HASTINGS Richard P., TITZSIMONS Elaine
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 23(1), January 2010, pp.27-37.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Ninety-nine fathers of 67 boys and 32 girls with intellectual disability, between 6 and 18 years of age, participated in a questionnaire study. Psychological acceptance of difficult/negative emotions and thoughts associated with interactions with the child with intellectual disability were measured alongside ratings of the child's behaviour problems and paternal negative (stress, anxiety, depression) and positive ('positive gain') well-being. Psychological acceptance was found to partially mediate the impact of child behaviour problems on paternal stress, anxiety, and depression. Acceptance was also a positive predictor of fathers' perceptions of positive gain associated with raising their child with intellectual disability. However, it could not function as a potential mediator of positive gain in the present research because fathers' ratings of their child's behaviour problems were not associated with paternal positive gain. Implications for practice include the potential of acceptance-based interventions, and other psychological interventions targeting acceptance and avoidance processes (e.g. mindfulness-based approaches), to positively affect paternal psychological adjustment.