Leaving home: The housing aspirations of young disabled people

Abstract

This article explores the housing experiences and aspirations of young disabled people in Scotland. Those who leave the family home in crisis experience several housing moves before settling; those who leave in a planned way tend to stay in their first home. Young people aspiring to leave the parental home are limited to a social housing tenancy, as a result partly of their economic circumstance and partly of a lack of knowledge of other choices. Social care professionals need to pay closer attention to assessing housing aspirations and helping young people consider all options. This should be an ongoing aspect of supporting all young disabled people.

On the road to nowhere? Young disabled people and transition

“…A lack of information made available for young people and parents about future options and opportunities and the sorts of services and support that will become available has been shown to be a significant problem (Heslop et al . 2002; Morris 2002; Dean 2003). In addition, there are insufficient specialist staff available to work with young people and their parents around the time of transition and/or specialist transition services cannot meet demand (Heslop et al .…”

“…Low expectations and limited aspirations held by young disabled people have also been seen to impact on the outcomes of transition planning, and there is also evidence to suggest that similar, lowered, expectations are also held by staff (Hirst & Baldwin 1994; Heslop et al . 2002; Morris 2002; Dean 2003). Given this, it is not surprising to find that the outcomes of transition services are so poor, with the evidence suggesting it is rare for the outcome of transition services to be a young disabled person achieving ‘adult status’ in terms of work/financial independence, living away from home, social/sexual relationships (Hirst & Baldwin 1994; Hendey & Pascall 2002; Heslop et al .…”

“…An additional weakness of the current evidence base is that, despite evidence which shows how the different aspects of adult status are interdependent (e.g. Hendey & Pascall 2002; Dean 2003), research projects have tended to focus on one aspect of transition (for example, leaving home, transfer from paediatric to adult clinics) as opposed to taking a complete view of transition. Finally, while parents often participated in the research reviewed, their own needs and role in supporting their child's transition remain another neglected area.…”

Family carers' perspectives on post‐school transition of young people with intellectual disabilities with special reference to ethnicity

“…Majority of carers expressed the need for better communication and information about services. This lack of information made available for young people and their families has been a recurrent problem (Morris 2002; Dean 2003). There is also a paucity of specialist staff to work with families around transition issues, and staff cannot cope with the demand for services (Cope 2003).…”

“…2002; Bresford 2004). The need for information about adult service provision has been consistently reported in the literature (Morris 2002; Dean 2003). Post‐school provision is limited, with the progression usually being to further education.…”