Aging Mothers and Aging Daughters: Life-Long Caring and Intellectual Disability

ABSTRACT

While aging and caring are well-discussed in academic literature, the association among aging, caring and intellectual disability is less well documented. This paper draws on a recently completed Australian study which focuses on such mother/daughter relationships and whose narratives form the framework for an argument for a re-imagining of the concept of care for aged people with intellectual disability. Specifically, using a genealogical approach, the paper describes how powerful discourses at the time of the daughter's birth (1940s and 1950s) -associated with eugenics, institutional care and motherhood -are framing the way in which aging mothers are now contemplating the future care for their adult (and also aging) daughters.

KEYWORDS:

• Aging and intellectual disability
• caring
• public policy
• gender
• practice