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Policy development and implementation for disability services in rural New South Wales, Australia
- Authors:
- DEW Angela, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 11(3), 2014, pp.200-209.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Throughout their lives, all people, including those who have a disability, use a broad range of community services. Community services are important in assisting people with a range of impairments to participate in their communities. Vast geographic distances and a lack of therapists in rural and remote regions of Australia pose significant barriers for implementing policy aimed at supporting people with a disability. The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which metropolitan-formulated policy encompassed the unique geographic, demographic, and sociocultural challenges experienced by rural therapists and people with a disability in New South Wales (NSW). Twenty-seven policy documents were reviewed and categorised into tier 1 (higher level strategic policies) and tier 2 (specific operational policies). Tier 1 policy documents provided consistent messages about the need to develop strategies and service delivery options to address geographic, cultural, and age-related barriers facing all people in NSW including those who have a disability. Tier 2 documents revealed a lack of attention to the practical differences between implementing the policy principles in metropolitan compared with rural areas. Study findings identify that the implementation of metropolitan-formulated policy does not always encompass the unique challenges experienced by therapists providing services to rural people with a disability and their carers. This study highlights the importance of “rural proofing” policy to consider people who live and work in rural areas. (Edited publisher abstract)
The training needs of staff supporting individuals ageing with intellectual disability
- Authors:
- WARK Stuart, HUSSAIN Rafat, EDWARDS Helen
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 27(3), 2014, pp.273-288.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Background: The issue of ageing within the cohort of people with intellectual disabilities has been an increasing focus for research. However, the training needs of the staff who support them has not been subject of extensive examination. Materials and Methods: A multiround Delphi project was conducted focusing upon the impact ageing issues have on the support provided by disability workers, and what training is required to address the identified areas. Results: Three rounds of the Delphi identified twenty-six separate important issues. A thematic analysis identified five main themes including Generic Training Issues; Medical Issues; Emerging Ageing Issues Requiring Changing Support; Mental Health Issues; and Quality of Life. Conclusions: The study identified a series of training priorities for staff assisting people ageing with an intellectual disability. It would appear possible for many training programmes to be developed and delivered with minimal cost impacts even within rural localities. (Original abstract)
Recruitment and retention of allied health professionals in the disability sector in rural and remote New South Wales, Australia
- Authors:
- LINCOLN Michelle, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 39(1), 2014, pp.86-97.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Background: People with disability living in rural areas are vulnerable to the loss of access to allied health services due to a critical shortage of allied health professionals (AHPs). This study aimed to investigate recruitment and retention issues of importance to AHPs providing services to people with disability in rural New South Wales, Australia. Method: Focus groups and semistructured interviews were conducted with 97 purposively sampled service providers in the disability sector. Interviews and focus groups were digitally recorded and transcribed. A modified grounded theory approach using thematic analysis and constant comparison was used to analyse the data. Results: Three major themes relating to recruitment and retention were identified: (a) flexible recruitment, (b) retention strategies that work, and (c) challenges to retention. Conclusions: AHPs in the disability sector identified some of the same issues influencing recruitment and retention as AHPs in the health, education, and private sectors. Several unique issues were also identified that will assist policymakers to improve recruitment and retention of AHPs employed in the disability sector in rural areas. (Publisher abstract)
Policy, plans and pathways: the ‘crisis’ transition to post-parental care for people ageing with intellectual disabilities in rural Australian carescapes
- Authors:
- GARNHAM Bridget, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 39(4), 2019, pp.836-850.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
The concurrent ageing of parental care-givers and people with intellectual disabilities is driving academic and social welfare concern for a post-parental care ‘crisis’. The ‘crisis’ typically pertains to a transition from primary care in the family home precipitated by the death or incapacity of older parents without a pre-planned pathway to post-parental care. This crisis is amplified in rural communities given low service engagement with families and a deficit of disability-supported accommodation and services. Academics, service providers and policy makers have responded through a problematisation of post-parental care planning. This focus continues to normalise informal care, burdens families with responsibility for planning, and diverts attention from structural deficits in the socio-political carescape. This paper attends to the Australian policy landscape in which long-term care-giving for families living with intellectual disability is enmeshed. It contends that the dyadic and didactic model of informal long-term care has profound implications for social service support and post-parental care planning. Problematisation of carers’ ‘need’ to relinquish primary care and for people with intellectual disabilities to transition to independent and supported living is necessary to unsettle the dominant policy and service discourse around the provision of services to sustain informal care-giving. Innovation is then needed to forge pathways of support for families in rural communities planning on continuing, transitioning and transforming care arrangements across the lifespan. (Edited publisher abstract)
GP and support people's concerns and priorities for meeting the health care needs of individuals with developmental disabilities: a metropolitan and non-metropolitan comparison
- Authors:
- IACONO Teresa, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 28(4), December 2003, pp.353-368.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
General practitioners (GPs) from the Australian state of Victoria and support people were surveyed about their concerns and priorities for meeting the health care needs of people with developmental disabilities. Despite the poor response rate (22% and 27%), sampling adequacy was obtained, and the tools were found to have construct validity. According to the results, GPs had concerns about the assessment and management of people with developmental disability and tended to rely on support people. They knew about many services in their communities, but were less likely to know about non-medical, and government and non-government disability services. Support people reported concerns about health care service providers' lack of knowledge, family stress during periods of hospitalisation, and, particularly for rural respondents, the need to travel to access services. There were relatively few differences in responses from metropolitan versus non-metropolitan respondents, which may be explained by the relative accessibility of Victorian rural towns when compared with other Australian states.
Neighbourhood and community experience, and the quality of life of rural adolescents with and without an intellectual disability
- Authors:
- PRETTY Grace, RAPLEY Mark, BRAMSTON Paul
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 27(2), June 2002, pp.106-116.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Community integration has long been acknowledged as a foundational goal of community-based care for young people with an intellectual disability. This study reports a comparative analysis of awareness and usage of community facilities; lifestyle habits such as shopping, leisure and sport participation; perceptions of neighbourhood environments and subjective quality of life of matched groups of adolescents in rural Australia, with and without a mild intellectual disability. The results identify community usage and lifestyle patterns typical of adolescents in rural towns, with no significant differences noted on any measure between those with and those without an intellectual disability. The discussion promotes the inclusion of community factors such as sense of belonging to, and experiences in, one"s "ordinary community" when investigating community integration of adolescents with a disability.
Quality of life in a community-based service in rural Australia
- Authors:
- RAPLEY Mark, HOPGOOD Laura
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 22(2), June 1997, pp.125-141.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This article examines a community-based service, accommodating thirty-four people with intellectual disabilities in a regional Australian city and small rural town, using both established measures of service quality also novel measurers of service users' quality of life (QQL) and sense of community. Results indicate significant variation in the quality of service provision in a context of restricted scope for domestic participation, little autonomy, and impoverished community membership. It appears that the reality of service outcomes for individuals with intellectual disabilities here is in some tension with the rhetorical commitments of community-based service providers.