Literature Review on Provision of Appropriate and Accessible ...

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vulnerable if a breakdown occurred in the support provided by
their families.
• Mothers with intellectual disability living alone had servicecentred
networks; mothers living with a partner had familycentred
networks and mothers living in a parent/parent-figure
household had local, family centred networks.
Support to People with an Intellectual Disability who are
Accessible
and Appropriate of Provision on <strong>Review</strong> <strong>Literature</strong>
Experiencing Crisis Pregnancy
The overall conclusion was that these mothers did not live in a social
vacuum, but many were socially isolated. The implications of the findings
included the need for service providers to be sensitive to the variations
in mothers with intellectual disabilities’ support networks. The study
also found that particular attention needs to be paid to the varying
involvement of different groups of people and the types of support that
they offer in relation to mothers’ living arrangements.
Of particular concern was the group of single mothers who lived alone
and who had few long-term relationships that could offer emotional
support; the challenge, therefore, is to devise ways in which these
mothers can be assisted to develop local, community-based support
networks to help in the demanding task of raising children.
It has been recognised that the task of parenting may be daunting for
parents with intellectual disability and that relatively restricted social
networks play a role in this (Murphy and Feldman, 2002). Feldman,
Varghese, Ramsay and Rajska (2002) examined the relationships between
parenting stress, social support and mother-child interactions in 30
mothers with intellectual disabilities residing in small cities (population
less than 100,000), towns and rural areas of eastern Ontario, Canada. [89]
Feldman et al. found that the stress levels of parents with intellectual
disability were very high (compared to the general population) and
their self-reported need for social support was also high. Parents with
89 A social system definition of intellectual disability (Mercer 1973) was used to
determine eligibility for this study. Based on diagnostic assessments, school
(and more recent) records, the provincial social services ministry deemed all
study participants eligible for adult services and financial supports exclusively
for persons with intellectual disabilities (synonymous with the term ‘mental.
retardation’).