Evaluation of a Group Intervention to Assist Aging Parents with Permanency Planning for an Adult Offspring with Special Needs

Abstract

More than three-fourths of older adults with developmental disabilities and mental illness live in the community with aging parents, the majority of whom do not complete plans for the residential, financial, and legal future of their offspring. The authors used a true experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness of a six-week psychoeducational group intervention with 27 older mothers. Data collected in pre- and posttest telephone interviews were analyzed with repeated measures MANCOVA to test five hypotheses. Significant multivariate effects were found for mothers' knowledge and awareness about permanency planning, confidence and competence to plan, planning activities, and stage of planning. Findings support use of group interventions with older parents and underscore the need for professional education about planning for adults with special needs.

Elderly Mothers of Adult Children with Intellectual Disability: An Exploration of a Stress Process Model for Caregiving Satisfaction

“…Since intellectual disabilities remain highly stigmatized in Korea and services for families are less well developed than in western countries, worries about the future and lack of permanency planning, especially when thinking about a future wherein the elderly parents are no longer able to look after their adult children as they age or die, become main causes of stress. These results from the current study are consistent with findings from a previous study (Botsford & Rule ). Lefley & Hatfield () coined the term ‘WIAG (When I Am Gone) syndrome’ to explain the overwhelming stress that affects parents of children with disabilities.…”

“…On the contrary, a positive view towards ageing could positively affect caregiving satisfaction (Pruchno & Patrick 1999;Rimmerman & Muraver 2001). With regard to the establishment of permanency planning, elderly mothers who have no permanency planning in place for their children living with a disability are likely to feel even more stress (Botsford & Rule 2004), especially within less welldeveloped service systems for families with disabilities such as is the case in Korea. When elderly mothers have a permanency planning in place, their coping skill and caregiving satisfaction appear to be high (Miltiades & Pruchno 2001).…”

“…Due to the weakened strength and the loss of income and available resources, mothers experience aggravated adversity in caring (Pruchno & Meeks ). The main concern for the elderly mothers of adult children with disability is that they are incapable of taking care of their child as they grow old or when they die (Botsford & Rule ; Seltzer et al . ; Heller et al .…”

“…Due to the weakened strength and the loss of income and available resources, mothers experience aggravated adversity in caring (Pruchno & Meeks 2004). The main concern for the elderly mothers of adult children with disability is that they are incapable of taking care of their child as they grow old or when they die (Botsford & Rule 2004;Seltzer et al 2004;Heller et al 2007). Reflecting such concerns, most of the existing studies on families of adult children with disability focused on the caregiver's stress, depression, and psychological burden (Heller & Factor 1993;Minnes & Woodford 2005).…”

Cost-Effectiveness of Social Work Services in Aging

“…A total of 45 articles that reported the results of 42 outcome studies of social work interventions in aging were reviewed (Alexopoulos et al, 2009;Alkema, Wilber, Shannon, & Allen, 2007;Altfeld, Pavle, Rosenberg, & Shure, 2012;Bellantonio et al, 2008;Botsford & Rule, 2004;Brumley et al, 2007;Cabness, Miller, & Flowers, 2006;Chang, Jackson, Bullman, & Cobbs, 2009;Claiborne, 2006aClaiborne, , 2006bCounsell et al, 2007;Counsell, Callahan, Tu, Stump, & Arling, 2009;Dobrof et al, 2006;Ell, Unützer, et al, 2007;Ell, Vourlekis, Lee, & Xie, 2007;Engelhardt, McClive-Reed, et al, 2006;Engelhardt et al, 2009;Engelhardt, Toseland, Gao, & Banks, 2006;Enguí-danos & Jamison, 2006;Faul et al, 2009;Gallo et al, 2007;Gellis et al, 2008;Hanson, Reynolds, Henderson, & Pickard, 2005;Holland et al, 2005;Ingersoll-Dayton, Campbell, & Ha, 2009;Johnson & Stadel, 2007;London, McSkimming, Drew, Quinn, & Carney, 2005;Miller et al, 2007;Morrison et al, 2005;Mukamel et al, 2006;Newcomer, Kang, & Graham, 2006;Oslin et al, 2004;Phelan, Williams, Penninx, LoGerfo, & Leveille, 2004;Phibbs et al, 2006;Prior, Bahret, Allen, &amp...…”