Literature Review on Provision of Appropriate and Accessible ...

PAGE 26
contraception, sexual offences, sexual abuse, capacity, consent.
Relevant retrieved citations were approximately 200 papers
published between 1990 and 2009.
<strong>Literature</strong> <strong>Review</strong> on Provision of Appropriate and Accessible
Support to People with an Intellectual Disability who are
Nursing Programme personnel providing intellectual disability courses
Experiencing Crisis Pregnancy
at third level (DCU, Dundalk IT, Letterkenny IT, St. Angela’s College,
Sligo, TCD, UCC, UL, Waterford IT) and other nursing programme
personnel (UCD, NUIG) were contacted via email to find out if they were
aware of good practice in supporting women with intellectual disabilities
experiencing pregnancy.
Key international researchers and research institutes in the field were
contacted for copies of articles and for other information as well as
relevant organisations, for example, fpa (family planning association) in
London.
1.4.3 Limitations
The following issues were identified in the literature:
• The majority of empirical work is carried out with women
with mild to moderate learning disabilities. Dotson, Stinson
and Christian (2003) point out that women with more severe
disabilities, i.e. lower cognitive abilities and verbal skills, are
routinely absent from sexuality research studies due to a lack of
appropriate tools and research designs.
• Studies on sexuality and intellectual disability which have
not taken into account different levels of disability have found
overall lower levels of sexual activity, which may be due in part
to the lower sexual activity of people with moderate and severe
intellectual disability (Conod & Servais, 2008).
• Data regarding incidence rates of unplanned pregnancies is
either lacking, dated, or restricted to certain subgroups (e.g.,
institutionalised) that are not representative of the larger
population.