The foremost aim of this study is inherent in my primary research question which asks how the families of adult children with intellectual disabilities understand and experience the transition that takes place when their children age out of high school. In order to achieve this goal, I turned to the families themselves and asked participants to recount their lived experiences during this important transition. Throughout my data collection and subsequent analysis, I relied on methods common to interpretative phenomenology to guide my process and ensure its viability. To this end, I have conducted a phenomenological analysis of participant narratives and provide a comprehensive portrayal of how parents experience and understand the transition that takes place when their adult children with intellectual disabilities age out of school. I have strived to embed this study within the framework of the existing literature and policy pertaining to this transition. I have enhanced this research with an original content analysis of news articles pertaining to the post-school lives of adults with intellectual disabilities. Finally, I undertook interviews with community and government representatives. When taken together, these elements illustrate how difficult it is for the parents of young adults with intellectual disabilities to replace the services and supports that they lose when their adult children age out of high school in Ontario.

Holmqvist, L & Niia, K. SOCIETY’S FORGOTTEN CHILDREN. A STUDY OF THE SOCIAL SERVICE’S WORK WITH YOUNG PEOPLE WHO AGE-OUT OF FOSTER CARE. Degree project in Social Work, 15 Credits. Malmö University: Faculty of Health and Society, Department of Social Work, 2017This is an essay dedicated to the young people who has been placed in out-of-home care, and because of their age has to leave their placements to stand on their own. International, as well as swedish research shows that this is a vulnerable group of young people who often both has a broken past and an uncertain future ahead of them, and that many of them has a hard time faring as independent adults. In many other countries, the transitional period these young care leavers goes through when they make their journey to independence is high on the agenda. In Sweden however, this group and their unique situation has gotten very little attention, neither in the legislation, from scientists or from social workers. In Sweden we put in a lot of resources and effort to support children in care, but very little to when it's time for these young people to leave the system. The purpose of this essay has been to find out why this group of young people seems to be invisible in the swedish context. To do that we’ve studied previous research, legislation and conducted interviews with social workers working with these youths. To help analyse our empiricism and find an explanation to the problem, we’ve used theories about the social workers room for manoeuvre, the individualisation of the swedish society and how New Public Management has come to effect the public sector. We’ve found that Sweden’s general and universal laws which puts a big responsibility on the individual, combined with the fact that these young people falls right in the crack between childhood and adulthood -both according to law and in the eyes of the population, are factors that plays a big part in the reasons as to why these young care leavers in Sweden seems to become a “hidden-population”.

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