Spirituality and the quality of life of individuals with intellectual disability
Issue Date
2022-08-30Subjects
intellectual disabilityspirituality
religion and spirituality
spiritual/religious activities
quality of life
faith
non-faith
Subject Categories::L350 Religion in Society
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Context: Spirituality seems to form part of person-centred care planning and needs assessment of persons with intellectual disability. Yet, the role of spiritually in relation to their quality of life (QoL) has scarcely been investigated. Objective: This paper reports on an exploration of the extent to which spiritual belief and practice was linked to individuals’ perception of quality of life in two types of care services – one a faith-based provider, the other a non-faith based service. Method: A mixed-methods approach utilising the Quality Of Life Questionnaire (QOLQ) and the a brief spiritual beliefs inventory for use in quality of life research (Systems of Belief Inventory -15R) was used to interview people with intellectual disabilities (or, if they lacked capacity, their formal carers) who lived in their respective service for a long time. Findings: Participants living in the faith-based care service recorded higher mean and median scores on the QOLQ compared to their colleagues who resided in the non-faith based care service. Further analysis indicated significant correlations between the spirituality measure and most of the QOLQ domains. Limitations: The study sample of 36 makes generalisations difficult and our initial intention to include a range of faith traditions were unsuccessful. Implications: Further academic studies exploring spiritual issues for people with intellectual disabilities are needed, as well as clearer policy and practice guidelines and a willingness on the part of services to support this aspect of life.Citation
Sango PN, Forrester-Jones R (2022) 'Spirituality and the quality of life of individuals with intellectual disability', Journal of Long-Term Care, 2022 (2022), pp.193-204.Publisher
LSE PressJournal
Journal of Long-Term CareAdditional Links
https://journal.ilpnetwork.org/articles/10.31389/jltc.139/Type
ArticleLanguage
enEISSN
2516-9122ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.31389/jltc.139
Scopus Count
Collections
The following license files are associated with this item:
- Creative Commons
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International