Disabled people’s voices on sexual well-being

Abstract

Disabled people have equal rights to positive sexual well-being including sexual citizenship; however, this may not always be experienced and support for sexual well-being is less likely to form part of services offered by professionals in health and social care services. Inspired by disabled people, phenomenological research into the experience of sexual well-being for a group of physically disabled adults was undertaken. The results show that sexual well-being is understood in several ways. The notion of sexual well-being raises issues of the physical body, connection to notions of normality and what support disabled people want from health and social care professionals. There is a clear link between sexual well-being and other aspects of physical and emotional well-being, making it an issue which needs to be proactively addressed by health and social care professionals in ways which are directed by disabled people.

Keywords:

• physical disability
• lived experience
• sexual well-being
• professional practice

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the research participants for sharing their experiences and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Dorset County Council;