Effective partnerships with parents of adults with mild intellectual disabilities in residential care: Experiences of support staff

Background: Effective parent-staff partnerships are essential for facilitating adequate service delivery in residential care for adults with (mild) intellectual disabilities. However, this partnership is often evaluated as being suboptimal. Whilst previous research has focused on parental perspectives, the present study explores support staff's experiences regarding effective partnerships.

Method: Eleven support staff members were interviewed using a semi-structured format. The results were analysed using thematic analysis.

Results: Four themes were identified: (1) Acknowledging the value of parents, (2) Deliberating over what is possible and allowed given that it is service users who set the framework for the partnership, (3) Experiencing different perspectives on what constitutes high-quality care and (4) Establishing a connection with parents.

Conclusions: This study provides concrete insights into how to improve parent-staff partnerships, including recognising the paramount role of service users, enhancing informal parent-staff interactions, and providing support for staff such as ethics consultations and peer support.