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Background: Before COVID-19, people with intellectual disabilities were digitally excluded, facing difficulties accessing and using technology. The pandemic outbreak closed down many in-person services and supports for this population. Methods: This study examined changes in technology use to support the healthcare and social connections of older adults with intellectual disability in Ireland (n = 682) during COVID-19. Decision tree analyses explored factors associated with using technology for health and social connection; and to explore relationships between technology use and subjective outcomes of stress/anxiety and of positives during this period. Findings: Technology use for healthcare and social connection increased during COVID-19, but not enough to make up for the loss of in-person care/connection. Residence type was associated with increased use of technology for healthcare utilisation, with the highest rates among community group home residents and the lowest among those in independent/family settings. Increased technology use to speak with both family and friends was associated with prior digital skills and digital access. Increased technology use was significantly associated with both positive and negative experiences during the pandemic. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic offered an opportunity for increased digital connection for older adults with intellectual disabilities, but not all benefitted. Those with prior skills, available supports, and the greatest need to connect were more likely to enhance their use of technology. The complexity of the COVID-19 period, including the general impact on mental health and well-being, means that the role technology played in supporting quality of life and mitigating stress/anxiety needs further and longer-term investigation.

Person-centred planning (PCP) puts individuals with an intellectual disability at the centre of service and support planning, identifying how individuals wish to live their lives and what is needed to make that possible. PCP has been identified as having the potential to facilitate improved social inclusion and community participation. A mixed-methods approach combined quantitative analyses with qualitative case studies of individuals with severe-profound intellectual disability to assess the impact of PCP on community participation for adults with an intellectual disability at a disability service in Dublin. We conclude that PCP may provide a good basis to plan community participation and, with the right supports in place, may provide opportunities for people with complex needs to improve their community participation. Supports including familiar staff and family are critical to the success of PCP for people with complex needs, and their absence may undermine the best intentions of PCP for this population.

Background: Friendship is important to quality of life, yet people with intellectual disability have more restricted social networks and fewer friends outside family and support staff. Method: Data from a nationally representative longitudinal study of older adults with intellectual disability (aged >40) examined rates and types of friends. Factors associated with having a best friend and friendship quality were explored. Results: A large majority (92.4%) had friends but just over half (52%) had a best friend. Co-resident friends (71.8%) were more common than non-resident friends (62%), while staff friendships (62.5%) were important. The majority of best friends were peers with intellectual disability (63.2%), carer/service providers (15.9%) or family (8.4%). Challenging behaviour and communication difficulty were associated with reduced likelihood of having a best friend. A best friend with intellectual disability was associated with lower friendship quality scores. Conclusion: Limited choice and social opportunity may result in a precarious form of friendship for older people with intellectual disability that undermines their quality of life.

Background: People with intellectual disabilities are living longer, with family homes and family caregivers increasingly identified as a key support to this ageing population of people with intellectual disabilities. Method: This systematic review sets out existing evidence from empirically evaluated intervention studies of future care planning for adults with intellectual disability by family carers. Results: This systematic review identified a scarcity of systematic approaches to future care planning for adults with intellectual disabilities and their family carers. However, evidence from the review suggests positive outcomes for families once they engage in a future planning process. Conclusions: Contemporary social policy orientation, which emphasizes reliance on families to provide care, along with an ageing population of people with intellectual disabilities, and diminishing caring capacity within family networks, suggests an urgent need for a more expansive research base that evaluates approaches to supporting adults with intellectual disabilities and their family carers to plan for their futures.

Background: Adults with an intellectual disability (ID) have much lower rates of employment than their counterparts without intellectual disability, which increases their risk of poverty and social exclusion. Differential treatment of people with intellectual disability in welfare and training policies suggests an expectation they will be passive welfare recipients rather than productive employees. Methods: This paper aims to examine occupational activities by older people with intellectual disability in Ireland, exploring factors influencing outcomes using data from the IDS-TILDA study (n = 708). Results: Most people were unemployed but engaged in regular occupational activity. Occupational activity was associated with better emotional/mental health. Activities of Daily Living (ADL) functioning was associated with an active occupational status, while social supports most strongly predicted high occupational engagement across a range of activities. Conclusions: A focus on the individual meaning derived from a broad range of engagement may better support people with intellectual disabilities to benefit from regular occupational activity.

Background: Transport is an important basis for social participation. Challenges to accessing and using transport for people with intellectual disabilities increase their risk of exclusion and loneliness. Method: Data from a nationally representative study of older people with intellectual disabilities (n = 708) were used to examine longitudinal changes in transport usage and factors associated with using public transport and other travel options. Results: Findings confirmed that this population depends on others for transportation. The most frequently used mode, staff-supported transport, showed no significant longitudinal change. Public transport was secondary, with only moderate continued use between data collection points. Level of intellectual disability most strongly predicted public transport use, while community residence most strongly predicted using public transport to attend work or day programmes. Conclusions: Transport usage is associated with demand and supply factors linked to the person's environment, including having somewhere to go that requires transport and availability of transport options.

Most people with intellectual disabilities (IDs) live at home with family, and most carers and care recipients wish to continue this arrangement. However, despite worry about what will happen when carers are unable to continue caring, most families do not plan for the future. The "Future Care Road Map" (FCRM) pilot study sought to enhance future care planning for families of adults with ID. Twelve families were facilitated through the FCRM process to establish future care plans, including future living and care arrangements. The pilot successfully improved future planning, but readiness of families and facilitation were important to outcomes. Continued care within the family was the most common future wish of care recipients. However, caring capacity emerged as a pervasive theme. Ultimately, it may be the capacity of the family, services or individual with ID themselves to provide future care which determines how feasibly future wishes translate into future plans.

Background: Spirituality and spiritual support for older people with intellectual disability are deemed important, however little is known about their specific needs. This paper reports for the first time on the religious and spiritual practices of older adults with intellectual disability. Methods: A national longitudinal study examined the prevalence of spiritual practices among older people with intellectual disability in the Republic of Ireland. Results: Older people with intellectual disability seek and receive solace from religious and spiritual practices, especially if they are lonely, in poor health, distressed or bereaved. There is likely a social benefit to spiritual and religious aspects of life that would be beneficial to explore further. Conclusions: Globally more research is required and efforts should be made to ensure greater opportunities for inclusion in societal spiritual and religious activities and to more clearly determine the spiritual needs of this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The literature on influences of community versus congregated settings raises questions about how social inclusion can be optimised for people with intellectual disability. This study examines social contacts for older people with intellectual disability in Ireland, examining differences in social connection for adults with intellectual disability and other adults. Materials & Methods: Data were drawn from the IDS-TILDA study in Ireland. A nationally representative sample (n = 753) included adults aged 40 years and older, with additional comparison with general population participants. Predictors of social contacts were explored. Results: Residence, level of intellectual disability and age were significant factors determining social contact. People in institutional residences, older respondents and those with severe/profound intellectual disability had the lowest levels of contact; older adults with intellectual disability had much lower rates than general population counterparts. Conclusions: Community-dwelling people with intellectual disability have greater social contact than those living in institutions, but levels are below those for other adults in Ireland.

Background Methods Findings Conclusion Developments in digital technologies have transformed how people interact with the world, offering employment, education, communication, health benefits and entertainment. Research has shown that not everyone can easily access digital content, particularly people with intellectual disabilities. Despite internet access being recognised as a human right in the United Nations' Conventions on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, this group faces significant disadvantages.A thematic analysis of quantitative and qualitative findings was conducted with data from focus groups and interviews with 200+ participants across Ireland, Sweden, France, and the Netherlands on how people with intellectual disabilities are using technology at this time and access facilitators and barriers.The pandemic exacerbated the digital divide between people with intellectual disabilities and their neurotypical peers, impacting physical and mental well‐being. Growing demand for accessible digital skills training underscores the need to bridge this gap.Addressing these digital access disparities is crucial to ensure that individuals with intellectual disabilities can enjoy the benefits of the digital age and maintain their well‐being. By identifying priority topics in our interview data, researchers also pinpointed critical accessibility barriers and facilitators to support codesigning activities for future digital skills education content within the Digi‐ID project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A shift from single to multi-site health studies enabled a range of research benefits including faster recruitment of larger and more diverse samples; increased statistical power, greater rigour, generalisability, and external reliability; and increased likelihood of impacting policy and clinical practice. However, ethical review of multi-site studies by Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) raises specific challenges compared with single site studies, with requirements to apply to multiple local IRBs increasing the burden on research, possibly endangering the integrity of the research process or inhibiting development of multi-site studies. The option of a single centralised IRB may offer a clearer, more consistent and efficient review process. This study presents a case report and commentary from 15 years engaging with IRBs in multiple sites in Ireland by the Intellectual Disability Supplement to the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (IDS-TILDA). It examines the ethics review process for IDS-TILDA through its first four waves. While the majority of 48 IRBs granted ethical approval within 13 weeks, six IRBs took 21-47 weeks to approve, leading to delays in data collection of up to 11 months. Despite additional review time, no changes were required to the study protocol. Therefore, a critical impact of the process was the delay in starting data collection within a small number of organisations, and reduced involvement in the study for one organisation. The ethical review process with multiple IRBs increased the degree of complexity of the process, with added bureaucracy and far greater communication required across 48 IRBs, substantially adding to the resource commitment for the review process. The relatively quick approval from the majority of IRBs was partially a result of the longitudinal study building relationships with organisations throughout multiple waves. That other health studies may not accrue this benefit supports calls for a single IRB system for multi-site health studies., Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed., (Copyright: © 2024 McCausland D et al.)