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Becoming Aware of What You Know or Need to Know: Gathering Client and Context Characteristics in Day Services for Persons With Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities
Author(s) -
Vlaskamp C.,
Hiemstra S. J.,
Wiersma L. A.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of policy and practice in intellectual disabilities
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.592
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1741-1130
pISSN - 1741-1122
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-1130.2007.00106.x
Subject(s) - multiple disabilities , context (archaeology) , psychology , need to know , activities of daily living , day care , intellectual disability , medical education , applied psychology , nursing , medicine , developmental psychology , computer science , psychiatry , biology , paleontology , computer security
Persons with profound and multiple disabilities (PIMD) are dependent on staff to be sufficiently knowledgeable as to provide them with appropriate day services. One important determinant of the appropriateness and adequacy of a day support program is the level to which staff have detailed and specific knowledge about the functional abilities and the sensory and contextual preferences of their clients, and use this information when providing day activity center services. The authors conducted a study designed to determine what staff know about their clients’ capabilities and functioning and whether they applied this knowledge to the delivery of day services. Thirty‐three direct care activity center staff members from seven different residential facilities throughout the Netherlands were involved in the research. The study used a questionnaire designed as a flow chart, which parsed knowledge within nine categories, five related to the client’s functional abilities and four related to the client’s sensory and contextual preferences. Results indicate that staff generally lacked specific information on the adults in their day activity center, and this impaired their ability to select and provide appropriate activities. The authors concluded that a relatively simple and easy‐to‐design questionnaire can provide a good overview of the special training that is needed by staff who are responsible for offering activities to persons with PIMD.