Literature Review on Provision of Appropriate and Accessible ...

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5.8 Adequacy of training and support services
Booth and Booth (2003) note difficulties in recruiting and retaining
mothers and fathers with learning difficulties in early intervention
groups, parenting programmes, family centres, and antenatal classes
in the UK. They argue that these difficulties are too easily blamed on
the parents with learning difficulties themselves when they owe more to
shortcomings in the delivery of these services. Booth and Booth (2003)
have suggested some reasons for parents’ reticence in taking part in
support programmes, centring around experiences of disadvantage and
exclusion. Reasons Booth and Booth identified for parents’ reluctance to
take part in support programmes included fear of having their children
taken away, often leading them to regard professionals as a possible
threat; difficulties experienced with reading, writing, telling the time and
using public transport; being overburdened by day-to-day problems.
Support to People with an Intellectual Disability who are
Accessible
and Appropriate of Provision on <strong>Review</strong> <strong>Literature</strong>
Experiencing Crisis Pregnancy
Pixa-Kettner (2008: 319) raised the question of whether a possible
mistrust by parents with intellectual disability of professional support
services was based on their fears that children might be removed from
them if they had contact with support services. Many parents have spent
their life trying to avoid the label of intellectual disability, and therefore
steer clear of experiences that bring that stigma to mind (McGaw, 1996).
Other common pressures impacting on the participation of parents with
intellectual disability were clinical depression, child-care proceedings,
jealous partners, poor health and unavoidable commitments. Despite
these barriers, though, the successful Support and Learning Programme
(a joint venture between the University of Sheffield and Sheffield
Women’s Cultural Club, which ran from 1999 to 2001 and involved
personal support and development in self-advocacy to 31 mothers with
learning difficulties) showed that mothers will accept support if it is
provided in a manner that is tailored to their needs (Booth and Booth,
2003).
Research in the area of parental supports has tended to focus on
providers’ opinions (Newton, Horner, Ard, Lebaron and Sappington, 1994).
Guinea (2001) draws attention to the need to gather the perspectives of
people with learning disabilities themselves on the types of supports they
would find beneficial. Her findings - involving semi-structured interviews