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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.