The juncture and disjuncture of service delivery systems in post-parental care planning for rural people with intellectual disabilities

ABSTRACT

Background

Australian research indicates that post-parental care transitions are rarely planned and primarily occur following a crisis for a primary carer. This paper examines disability staff perceptions of transitions for people with intellectual disability and their ageing carers in rural South Australia.

Method

A focus group interview model was used, with a semi-structured interview guide initiating group discussions. A thematic analysis methodological approach was selected to analyse the data.

Results

This paper reports on the theme of Service Delivery, which has three sub-themes of Availability; Distance; and Individual Access. The key findings are presented and supported by the use of exemplar quotes.

Conclusions

This research indicates a poor intersection of general and specialist services is inhibiting post-parental transitional care for rural people. Simply allocating money to the individual does not resolve the issues, and the interface between different services needs to be better considered at government level.

KEYWORDS:

• Post-parental care
• rural
• NDIS
• intellectual disability
• ageing

Acknowledgements

This study was funded through a grant from the Australian Research Council under its Linkage Partnership scheme (LP190100287). The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the partner organisation for this project, Uniting Communities, and also note our gratitude to the study respondents who willingly gave their time for interviews.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Research Council: [Grant Number LP190100287].