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Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are characterized by difficulties in social interactions and functional communication skills, and the presence of repetitive behaviors and restrictive interests (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). These characteristics can adversely affect the daily functioning of individuals with ASD and pose problems for them in obtaining and maintaining stable employment. In addition, their limited ability to engage in leisure activities can also diminish their quality of life (Garcia-Villamisar, & Dattilo, 2010; Patterson, & Pegg, 2009). Employing an iPad2®, the present study used a multiple-probe design across six participants to investigate the effects of a most-to-least prompting procedure on independent leisure engagement with iPad2® apps. Data on the duration of leisure engagement was also addressed. In addition, this study examined the impact of a visual schedule on the participants’ independent transitioning between leisure activities on the iPad2® as a part of daily routines. The results suggest the intervention was effective in increasing the level of independence and leisure engagement of the participants. However, differences in screen touch-sensitivity and limited compatibility between apps caused difficulties for some of the participants at times. In addition, the caregivers of the participants responded to a survey regarding the social validity of the interventions, including their social perceptions of the use of these commonly available devices, and the stigma associated with these devices. The results indicated the caregivers felt the interventions with the iPad2® were effective improving participants’ independence and leisure engagement. They also thought the individuals would stand out less in the community with the use of the iPad2®. / Special Education

Yes / For this paper, emotional and socio-political questions lie at the heart of relationships in understanding intellectual disability and what it is to be a human. While the sexual and intimate is more often than not based on a private and personal relationship with the self and (an)other, the sexual and intimate life of intellectually disabled people is more often a ‘public’ affair governed by parents and/or carers, destabilizing what we might consider ethical and caring practices. In the socio-political sphere, as an all-encompassing ‘care space’, social intolerance and aversion to difficult differences are played out, impacting upon the intimate lives of intellectually disabled people. As co-researchers (one intellectually disabled and one ‘non-disabled’), we discuss narratives from a small scale research project and our personal reflections. In sociological research and more specifically within disability research it is clear that we need to keep sex and intimacy on the agenda, yet also find ways of doing research in a meaningful, caring and co-constructed way. / Childhood and Youth Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University

This study examines turnover among direct-care staff of community residential facilities. Turnover is of concern as the projected rate indicated by direct-care staff is 34%. A review of personnel records project an annual turnover rate of 40%. Stress is examined for its relationship to turnover. The Maslach Burnout Inventory is used to measure the perceived stress level of staff. Results indicate direct-care staff are not stressed to the point of burnout in two of the three subscales of the Maslach Inventory. Further analysis reveals no significant relationship between stress and turnover intention. Role conflict, role ambiguity, and role overload are examined for any relationship to degree of stress and turnover. No relationships were found between these sources of stress. Although no relationship exists between perceived stress, roles, and turnover, direct-care staff's reasons for leaving may be related to more money and better management. In order to reduce turnover, potential strategies for administrator's may to be to clearly define the job of direct-care staff and provide sufficient recognition. / Ed. D.

Bakgrund: Det finns ett växande intresse för att tillhandahålla palliativ vård för personer med intellektuell funktionsnedsättning, och därmed ett erkännande av deras särskilda behov och svårigheter att få tillgång till rättvis vård i livets slutskede. Detta ställer krav på att vårdpersonal ska kunna identifiera palliativa behov, samt inte minst bedöma när livets slut närmar sig. Denna kunskap gynnar både individen och hela samhället. Då tillgången till palliativ vård för personer med intellektuell funktionsnedsättning är sämre än för övrig befolkning sökte denna litteraturstudie identifierade orsaker till denna ojämlikhet. Syfte: Att beskriva vårdpersonals upplevelser av faktorer som möjliggör och försvårar palliativ vård för personer med intellektuell funktionsnedsättning. Metod: Studien är en litteraturöversikt. En tematisk analys med induktiv ansats genomfördes där inkluderade artiklar analyserats utifrån Braun och Clarkes tematiska analysmetod. Totalt valdes 14 artiklar ut från databaserna CINAHL och PubMed. Resultat: I resultatet framkom fem huvudteman – hur etiska värderingar påverkar vårdpersonals upplevelser av palliativ vård, kunskapsnivåns betydelse för möjligheten att ge god palliativ vård, de praktiska förutsättningar som arbetsgivare tillhandahåller, vårdpersonals upplevelse av hur närstående påverkar den palliativa vården samt hur vårdpersonals känslor påverkar deras upplevelse av att ge palliativ vård – vilka belyste vårdpersonalens erfarenheter. Slutsats: Resultatet visade både hinder och möjligheter för palliativ vård för personer med intellektuell funktionsnedsättning. Vårdpersonalens upplevelser präglas av ett fokus på hinder där bristande utbildning samt bristande samarbete tydligast försämrar möjligheten till jämlik vård till patientgruppen. Utifrån dessa resultat finns förutsättningar att utveckla framtida vård. / Background: There is a growing interest in providing palliative care for people with intellectual disabilities, and as a consequence a growing interest in recognizing their special needs and difficulties in accessing equitable end-of-life care. This places demands on healthcare staff to be able to identify palliative needs, not least to assess when the end of life is approaching. This knowledge benefits both the individual and society as a whole. As palliative care for people with intellectual disabilities is less avaliable than for the rest of the population, this literature study looked for identified reasons for this inequality. Aim: To discribe healthcare professional’s experperinces of factors that facilitates or hinder palliative care for people with intellectual disabilities. Method: This study is a literature review. A thematic analysis with an inductive approach was carried out, where included articles were analyzed using Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis method. A total of 14 articles were selected from the databases CINAHL and PubMed. Results: Five main themes emerged in the result – How ethical values affect the way healthcare professional´s experiences palliative care,  How the level of knowledge impacts the possibility to provide good palliative care, The practical conditions that an employer offers, How healthcare professionals experience the impact of the patients' family members on the palliative care and How the emotions of the healthcare professional’s affects their experience of providing palliative care – which illuminated the experiences of the healthcare professionals.  Conclusion: The result showed both obstacles and opportunities for palliative care for persons with intellectual disabilities. The healthcare professionals' experience is characterized by a focus on obstacles, where insufficient training and cooperation are the most prominent factors in making it more difficult to provide equal care for the patient group. Based on these results there are possibilities to develope future care.

The purpose of this systematic review of using digital activity schedules as an intervention in individuals with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disabilities is to determine to what extent the current research shows it to be an effective intervention. For articles to be included in this review, they had to use a digitally presented activity schedule, the activity schedule could not be a task analysis of a single activity or a group visual schedule, and the intervention must have been carried out with individuals with autism or intellectual disabilities. Studies meeting the inclusion criteria totaled 17 studies with a total of 58 participants included. The studies focused on the effects of using digital activity schedules to teach leisure skills, independent living skills, and academic skills across various age groups. Settings of the intervention, ages of participants, varying participant characteristics, and What Works Clearinghouse quality indicator standards in each study are examined. Results show that interventions were heavily concentrated in early childhood age groups, teaching leisure activities, and were often combined with other concurrent interventions. Future research should focus on more interventions implemented with individuals in secondary education, independent living skills, and rigorous methodological standards as defined by the What Works Clearinghouse quality indicators.

Persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) have the right to decide freely when and if they have children. However parental ID is often regarded as a risk for their children’s wellbeing and parents with ID often meet negative attitudes towards their parenthood from both professionals and their social networks. The aim of this study is to examine the conditions for parents with ID and their possibilities to be good enough parents. Both published research and personal depictions found in media were used in this literature study. Three themes were identified and analysed using good enough parenting and empowerment as a theoretical framework. The first theme to prove oneself as a good parent includesexperiencers of having one’s parenthood questioned based on stereotypes about ID as a diagnosis. Parents with ID feel they are being surveilled and judged by the people around them. There is an underlying feeling among parents with ID that they need to prove themselves as able parents. The second theme good relationships encourage good parenting contains stories of how the relationship with the social network and professionals affect parents with ID. Support from others can be perceived in both positive and negative ways depending on the quality of the relationship in which the support is offered. The last theme one diagnosis, a spectrum of conditions describes the variety of needs and experiences which affect people with ID and their ability to be good enough parents. Social context and experiences of for instance poverty, trauma or abuse affect the ability to parent regardless of an ID or not. In conclusion, professionals have an opportunity to work empowering with parents with ID, but this opportunity is often missed. A variability in living conditions and social context affect the ability to perform as a good enough parent. This is true for all parents, but for parents with ID in particular.

This study aims to research the Swedish social Services work concerning women with intellectual disabilities that experience intimate partner violence. Six semi- structured interviews with social service workers, that works with intimate partner violence, has been conducted and is the base for the results. The results show that the ability to offer suitable help for these women differs depending on the municipality. The study also shows that a lot of the social service workers do not feel that they have the suitable competence and qualifications to work with women with intellectual disabilities that has experienced intimate partner violence. Some social service workers have found approaches to adapt meetings by using resources in the networks of these women. The results also shows that the social service workers point out areas of the social services that are flawed when it comes to women with intellectual disabilities that experience violence. This study shows that women with intellectual disabilities that have experiences of intimate partner violence does not have the same opportunities to get appropriate help from the social services as women without intellectual disabilities does. It also becomes apparent that the Swedish social services have areas that are flawed and need to be developed.

Imagine that in city “U” there is a one-hour drive from the west side to the east side. Ten sixth-grade students live around a certain park on the west side of “U”. The nearest public primary school “V” is across the street from the park. Admittance to the nearest public primary school “V” is not based on achievement. Students do not have to repeat a subject and they are not expelled from the school if they fail subjects. Several of the sixth-grade students who live around the park are failing some of their subjects for some reason or other. Several will not qualify for admittance to high school. Among the students who are failing subjects, one is diagnosed with a mild intellectual disability. That student is reassigned on the basis of the diagnosis to special school “C” on the east of town. That student (and that student only) loses the right to attend their nearest public primary school “V”. In PART ONE of my paper, I introduce the notion of “demeaning institution” in relation to an argument made by the philosopher Sophia Isako Wong. Wong argues that aborting fetuses on the basis of a diagnosis of Down syndrome in an ableist society is analogous to aborting fetuses on the basis of a diagnosis of female in a very sexist society. Wong argues that in both cases (1) difference from a norm and (2) the effects of social barriers to participation are (mistakenly) presumed by medical doctors to indicate inferiority. I do not argue for or against Wong’s argument that it is impermissible to abort fetuses on the basis of a diagnosis of Down syndrome. I am interested in a related, but different, notion: that it is impermissible for institutions (like the medical profession and the public primary school) to demean. In PART TWO of my paper, I argue that denying students with mild intellectual disability the right to attend their nearest public primary school is analogous to racial school segregation in the U.S. South prior to the enforcement of Brown v,. Board of Education (1954). If attendance at the nearest public primary school is not based on achievement (i.e. there is no achievement test for admittance, and students that fail subjects do not lose their place in the class), it is demeaning when the school denies a place in the regular class to students because of mild intellectual disability. In that case, I argue, the school is a “demeaning institution”.