The psychological effects of people with intellectual disabilities Dissertation

The psychological effects of people with intellectual disabilities experiencing loss and bereavement - Dissertation Example This girl of 19 years and very dependent on her mother was not allowed to come anywhere near her mother’s body before she was taken away. She was being continually picked upon and that left her irritated and lost. The bereavement could not be handled by this girl and the attitude of her aunt made her worse. The community as a whole did not know how to handle grief associated with bereavement. The psychological responses such as yearning, anxiety, depression, distrust of others and complicated grief were expected of the intellectually disabled. Carers and staff were not prepared to recognise or to provide effective support at the time of loss and bereavement. Their ignorance of how to handle the situation could be the main culprit. Searching through the literature, I was surprised to find that little empirical research had been done to specifically look at the normal or complicated grief response in people with learning disabilities. On a personal level the subject is of great interest to me and it is intended that this research will increase my knowledge in theory and practice as well as enhancing the importance of research to my continuing professional development. History My search took me to the university Library. Electronic search engines and databases were looked through. PSYC INFO, CINAHL, PUBMED and the COCHRANE electronic databases helped me gather some material pertaining to the subject. The keywords used were bereavement, psychological reactions, loss, complicated grief, grief and learning disabilities. The Learning Resource Centre (LRC) library, Department of Health and Rowntree Foundation website helped me to retrieve grey literature. Boolean operators were used to narrow the results. Combined randomised controlled trials of bereaved adults with learning disabilities that compared community based interventions were included in the review. Life events with its psychological problems that were emotional, psychiatric and behavioural responses t o bereavement were also included. Recognition and concept of death by people with learning disabilities and their families and carers, as well as inclusion of assessment tools of complicated grief were selected. The exploration of support and interventions were also collected. A number of recent articles had considered the implications of grief and bereavement for people with learning disabilities. This had influenced me to concentrate on the parameters of the years between 2002 and 2010. Because of limited empirical studies I have included some of the articles with case studies illustrations. With eleven journal articles, I was ready to start on my hunt for ways of managing complicated grief in intellectually disabled persons. Could I be signalling off a process which has the outcome of the improved welfare and quality of life of the intellectually disabled at heart where bereavement grief is concerned? Critique of two articles on data collection and analysis Dodd, P., Guerin, S., McEvoy, J., Buckley, S., Tyrrell, J. & Hillery, J. (2008). A study of complicated grief symptoms in people with intellectual disabilities. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 52 (5), 415-425. The data were contained in the two assessment tools used for this study: Complicated Grief Questionnaire for People with Intellectual Disabilities (CGQ- ID) and Bereavement History Questionnaire (Adapted). The tools had been described