Unravelling Staff's Experiences: An Exploration of Staff Attitudes Towards Parental Involvement in Residential Care

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In residential care for people with intellectual disabilities, support staff take over daily care responsibilities for residents with severe intellectual disabilities. However, parents often remain involved in their support. Yet little is known about the attitudes of support staff towards parental involvement in daily care. METHOD: A vignette-based, qualitatively driven mixed-methods study was conducted, using structured interviews with 33 participants. A qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data, and descriptive statistics were provided about the participants' responses. RESULTS: The findings showed diverse cognitive, affective and behavioural responses to the vignettes. Staff were mainly sympathetic towards parental involvement but also highlighted moments of friction or uncertainty. CONCLUSIONS: Examining staff's attitudes provided insight into how (past) experiences shaped collaboration with parents. More insight into the coping strategies towards the emotional responses of parents and the impact of negative experiences is needed to sufficiently support staff in collaboration with parents.