| Summary: | 碩士 === 東吳大學 === 社會工作學系 === 98 === Aging with intellectual disabilities has two characteristics: First, healthcare problems caused by bio-psycho-social conditions of intellectual disabilities. Second, parents as main carers and intellectual disable adults are becoming aged at the same time. Aging people with intellectual disabilities and their aging parents are seen as the “double aging” problem, which means the family will face a double burden of healthcare. In reviewing domestic and foreign literatures, most studies of aging with intellectual disabilities focus on the researches and descriptions of healthcare, but little mention what kind of services should be provided to aging with intellectual disabilities. As a social work intern , the researcher had involved in a family supporting service program with the “double aging” problem. This study expects to achieve following purposes: 1. to understand the need of families with the “double aging” problem; 2. to understand the situation of “care burden” on main carers after the intervention of the supporting services; 3. to understand the influence of the social support on main carers after the provision of family supporting services; 4. to make suggestions for the family supporting services in the future.
This study used the methodology of in-depth interview. Interviewees include main carers from 7 families chosen from the sample areas of the family supporting program. The study discovers that double aging families face a health crisis of two generations: people with intellectual disabilities and carers are aging simultaneously and the need of healthcare is getting more, while the family lacking of supporting services adds multi-pressures on the shoulders of main carers , including problems of “double aging”, marginalized nuclear families, and worsening economic conditions, especially for female carers who are often in a difficult economic position. The intervention of family supporting programs can reduce some part of objective burdens on main carers though subjective burdens are difficult to be changed and measured, especially when there is a great distance between the awareness of “double aging” and the acceptance of the services by elder carers. In addition, family supporting services can provide official external resources to families with the “double aging” problem and connect with other supporting systems, but they are not able to construct a social support network, which will make a difference exists between the goal and the result. Finally, the study results expect to offer some discussion and suggestions, and hope that the government can cooperate with private organizations to improve domestic family supporting services in order to give the double aging families of intellectual disabilities a better environment.
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