Aim: In recent years, a lot of attention has been paid to improving the care and support of people with intellectual disabilities. A consequence is that many studies have been conducted into the...Show moreAim: In recent years, a lot of attention has been paid to improving the care and support of people with intellectual disabilities. A consequence is that many studies have been conducted into the effects of support on the well-being of people with an intellectual disability. But research into groups that have improved, deteriorated or remained the same in terms of quality of life in combination with support needs was lacking. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of the forward, backward and equal groups and to discover whether the groups differ in support needs. This is relevant because it can improve care and support. Method: Over a period of 4 years, 234 participants with an intellectual disability between the ages of 17 and 71 took part. To measure the quality of life of people with an intellectual disability, the San Martin Scale was used, completed by a supervisor. The support needs were identified with the Contextual Interview, this was done with the help of family, psychologist and supervisors. Both measuring instruments were administered three times in 4 years. Results: the results show that the quality of life differs over time. The forward, backward and equal groups differ in the domains: housing, communication, attachment, self-determination and physical needs. This research suggests that housing, communication, attachment and (physical) needs influence the progression of quality of life. Conclusion: the findings show that there are differences between the forward, backward and equal groups on domains of support needs. This research suggests that good support per domain leads to improvement or stabilization of the quality of life of people with an intellectual disability.Show less
This study examined whether there is a correlation between absenteeism in the workplace, problem behaviour of clients and the extent to which counsellors experience that they meet the client's...Show moreThis study examined whether there is a correlation between absenteeism in the workplace, problem behaviour of clients and the extent to which counsellors experience that they meet the client's support needs. The participants of the study consist of 138 people with intellectual disabilities and intensive care needs and care professionals. A contextual interview was used to map the opinion of counsellors about meeting the client's support needs. The questionnaire, Developmental Behaviour ChecklistAdults (DBCA), was completed for the degree of problem behaviour in clients. The data on absenteeism due to illness was requested from the healthcare institution via HRM. The collected data were analysed using a single and multiple regression analysis. The results show that absenteeism is related to both the experienced support needs of counsellors and the degree of behavioural problems of the client. The experienced support need of supervisors is a greater predictor of absenteeism due to illness. The conclusion is that when counsellors experience less meeting the support needs of the client, there is a higher absenteeism in the workplace. In addition, the degree of behavioural problems plays a role. The higher the degree of the behavioural problem, the more absenteeism there is. The degree of behavioural problems and the experienced support needs of counsellors do not appear to be related to each other.Show less
Background: Behavioural problems, such as aggressive behaviour, are common among people with intellectual disabilities (Deb & Bright, 2001; Janssen, Schuengel & Stolk, 2002). People with...Show moreBackground: Behavioural problems, such as aggressive behaviour, are common among people with intellectual disabilities (Deb & Bright, 2001; Janssen, Schuengel & Stolk, 2002). People with intellectual disabilities are also at higher risk of developing unsafe attachment with their caregivers, which can be one cause of their behavioural problems (Dekker-van der Sande & Janssen, 2009). The current research examined whether setting goals related to building a safe attachment with the care staff is effective for lessening behavioural problems in people with an intellectual disability with attachment problems. Method: The research group concerns clients (n= 25) with an intellectual disability with a care package 6 or 7, with attachment problems. The questionnaire DBC-A (Mohr et al., 2011) was used to examine behavioural problems. Attachment problems and goals were derived from the personal care plans. Results: The results show that almost no specific goals on enhancing safe attachment are accumulated. Interpersonal relationship can be viewed as an indirect measure of attachment. Research shows a significant decrease in disruptive behaviour, when there are goals focussed primarily on interpersonal relationships. There were no significant effects on the other subdomains of behavioural problems when goals related to interpersonal relationships were set. Conclusion and discussion: To conclude, there should be more awareness for the importance of setting goals aimed at creating safe attachment with care staff. Setting goals aimed at interpersonal relationships also leads to a decrease of disruptive behaviour.Show less
Aim: The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the orthopedagogical knowledge on Angelman Syndrome (AS) and Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), to create a useful framework for identifying support needs...Show moreAim: The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the orthopedagogical knowledge on Angelman Syndrome (AS) and Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), to create a useful framework for identifying support needs and to obtain more structure and uniformity in existing knowledge. This is done on the basis of two research questions: 1) What are the characteristics (genotype and phenotype) of the Angelman Syndrome and the Prader-Willi Syndrome? 2) Is it known from literature whether people with AS or PWS have an intensive need for care? Is a distinction noticeable between the group from the literature and the group of clients with AS, who all have an intensive care demand, in the SCORE research? Method: For the first research question, extensive literature research at meta level was performed. In addition, the literature has been analyzed on the basis of the domains of the AAIDD-model. A multiple case study was conducted for the second research question. Of the 225 clients, 2 were clients with AS and there were no clients with PWS. The results of the BSID-III, CI, VABS, DBC-A and the SMS have been analyzed. Results: People with AS have a profound intellectual disability. There is a severe disorder in every domain of the VABS. There is little to no participation in society. People with AS often have sleep disturbances, seizures, ataxia, and motor development delays. The living environment differs for each client. People with PWS have a mild intellectual disability with an average IQ between 60-70 but in addition also have severe medical and physical challenges. Conclusion: People with AS have an intensive need for care due to their low functioning level. More research is needed on the health care needs of people with PWS to conclude whether they have intensive care needs.Show less
The outlook on care for people with intellectual disabilities has changed considerably in recent decades. Nowadays it is important that this group of people receive the best possible quality of...Show moreThe outlook on care for people with intellectual disabilities has changed considerably in recent decades. Nowadays it is important that this group of people receive the best possible quality of care so they can achieve the best possible quality of life. Therefore, it is vital that more knowledge is collected on factors that have an impact on the quality of life of patients. Current study is part of the SCORE research and aims to give insight in the relationship between challenging behaviour, restrictions of freedom and quality of life. After checking assumptions, a total of 75 participants have been included all of whom are residents of and receive care at a facility of Ipse de Bruggen. The Developmental Behavior ChecklistAdults (DBC-A) and San Martin Scale (SMS) are used as well as data on restrictions of freedom obtained from the client files. A multiple regression analysis is used to examine the relationship between challenging behaviour and quality of life and to investigate the possible mediation by restrictions of freedom. Results show that an increase in challenging behaviour predicts a lower rated quality of life. Results also show this relationship is most significant for ‘selfabsorbed’ and ‘socialrelating’ challenging behaviour. No evidence was found to support restrictions of freedom as a mediator. However an increase in restrictions of freedom has been found to predict a lower rated quality of life. This relationship is most significant for physical restrictions. This means two separate relationships with quality of life have been found. The biggest limitations of current study are a non-generalisable sample and the use of quantitative data for restrictions of freedom. More research is needed to examine the impact of different factors on quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities so care can be adapted to ensure the best possible quality of life can be achieved.Show less
