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Supporting parents, supporting families: changing approaches to parents with intellectual disability
- Author:
- WARD Linda
- Journal article citation:
- Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, 4(2), June 2010, pp.38-43.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
According to international conventions and UK government policy, parents with intellectual disability have a right to have children and should have access to support to help them bring them up successfully. The kinds of support parents with intellectual disability should receive are described in detail in the Good Practice Guidance on Working with Parents with a Learning Disability. In practice, however, parents with intellectual disability continue to have problems with accessing the support they need to ensure they are able to demonstrate they are good enough parents to hold on to their children and are disproportionately at risk of having their children taken from them. This article reviews the challenges that parents face in holding on to their children and the support they need, both from professionals and the wider extended family where appropriate. The importance of having access to independent advocacy, especially in child protection or court proceedings, is highlighted; such advocacy is not widely available, despite recent policy commitments in this area.