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Mealtime support for adults with intellectual disabilities: Understanding an everyday activity
Author(s) -
Redley Marcus
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.056
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1468-3148
pISSN - 1360-2322
DOI - 10.1111/jar.12790
Subject(s) - intellectual disability , duty , service (business) , psychology , sample (material) , business , nursing , medicine , marketing , psychiatry , political science , chemistry , chromatography , law
Background Mealtime support has a direct bearing on the diet‐related health of men and women with intellectual disabilities as well as opportunities for expressing dietary preferences. Method Semi‐structured interviews with a sample of direct support staff providing mealtime support to adults with intellectual disabilities. Results When managing tensions between a person's dietary preferences and ensuring safe and adequate nutrition and hydration, direct support staff are sensitive to a wide range of factors. These include the following: clinical advice; service users’ rights to choose; their (in)capacity to weigh up risks; how service users communicate; the constituents of a healthy diet; and a duty to protect service users' health. Conclusions Those responsible for setting standards and regulating the care practices need to look beyond too simple ideas of choice and safety to recognize ways in which providing support at mealtimes is a complex activity with serious consequences for people's health and well‐being.