How Can Social Work Practice Facilitate a Dignified Dying Experience for People With Intellectual Disabilities? A Scoping Review

Due to improvements in healthcare and the standard of living advancing, the life expectancy of people with intellectual disabilities (ID) has increased, with a greater number of people with ID now included among the ageing population. The aim of this review was to understand how social work practice...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Australian social work 2023-01, Vol.76 (1), p.60-71
Main Author: Irons, Kelly
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aging
Death
Death & dying
Decision making
Dying
End-of-life
Health care
Health services
Intellectual Disabilities
Intellectual Disability
Intellectually disabled people
Interdisciplinary aspects
Learning disabled people
Life expectancy
Literature reviews
Medical care
Mixed methods research
Palliative Care
Palliative treatment
People with disabilities
People with mental disabilities
Professional practice
Qualitative research
Social policy
Social Work
Social work research
Social workers
Standard of living
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Due to improvements in healthcare and the standard of living advancing, the life expectancy of people with intellectual disabilities (ID) has increased, with a greater number of people with ID now included among the ageing population. The aim of this review was to understand how social work practice can facilitate a dignified dying experience for this group of people. Six academic databases were searched with thematic analysis of included articles. The review included empirical qualitative, quantitative, mixed method studies as well as literature reviews, conceptual articles, and grey literature. Forty-five studies met the inclusion criteria, and four themes were identified. The review concluded that the establishment of social work specific research is necessary for the profession to understand systemic barriers and how opportunities can be implemented for a more enhanced and equitable dying experience. IMPLICATIONS People with ID experience difficulties in accessing high-quality palliative care and are excluded from autonomous decision making and education across the lifespan. There is a lack of social work research in the field of disability. More research will bring to light the distinctive contribution social workers can play in this interdisciplinary field.
ISSN:0312-407X
1447-0748
DOI:10.1080/0312407X.2021.1946572