Staff had only limited understanding of how Alzheimer's disease impacted the adults with Down syndrome, their responses to changes were ad hoc, and they used strategies on a trial and error basis. They were committed to providing care, but at the risk of rejecting input and support. The need for collaboration across disability, and aged and disability care was evident to facilitate aging-in-place and planned care transitions.

This research advances understandings of the support needs of people with Down syndrome and Alzheimer's disease and their families. It exposes gaps in the service system.

Being amongst strangers is a definitive aspect of life in the modern city. To understand social inclusion in cities, it is necessary to consider not only the strength and extent of social networks of familiarity, but also the role of interactions with strangers in the public realm. People with intellectual disability are considered one of the most marginalised groups in society and the study applies the concept of encounter to offer a new perspective on their inclusion/exclusion, informed by contemporary urban theory rather than more nostalgic notions of community. The paper discusses encounters between people with and without intellectual disability in one suburb in Melbourne, Australia. The study is based, primarily, on field observations in a variety of settings in the public realm. Through analysis of these data, a typology of urban encounters is proposed that involves people with and without intellectual disability.

Stringent ethical requirements are likely to continue to challenge researchers in ID. A human rights perspective provides a framework for engaging both researchers and vulnerable participant groups.

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