Permanency Planning: Families of Children with Intellectual Disability

Abstract

A qualitative study of 17 families with a child with intellectual disability in Singapore covering propensity towards permanency planning and systemic or individual factors that influenced the process are discussed. In a collectivistic society, the familial network is expected to assume long-term care of the child with disability at the disablement or demise of elderly parents. Several systemic and perceptual factors seemed to work against this ideal. Implications for supporting permanency planning at an early stage of the family life cycle are discussed.