Indicated family support
- a study of support to families having children with mild intellectual disabilities and the relation to child participation in everyday activities
Families having children with mild intellectual disability use less services in comparison to other families having children with disabilities and the children may have participation restrictions in everyday activities. It might have several explanations related to the families, that the laws require families to apply for services and that reach-out services are not provided. The aim of the study is, first to investigate the families service utilization and its relation to children’s participation, and second to investigate the effects of training professionals in how to provide support to the families. Family utilization of services are followed and children and families are interviewed twice within a two year period.
Results from first studies reveal that children with mild intellectual disability who were integrated into mainstream classes were statistically significantly less likely to utilize habilitation services and disability-related services from social services, in comparison with children in self-contained classes. We have now examined if this pattern also can be distinguished within a larger geographic area. The study has concerned services granted from social services to the families because of the child´s disability and because of social problems during the years 2009-2013.
Project leader: Mats Granlund
