Gender issues for people with intellectual disabilities and mental health problems: asking what service users and staff think

Abstract

PurposeThe current qualitative study aims to investigate service users’, support staff's and community team members’ views of gender differences in cause and presentation of mental health problems, whether current services respond differently to men and women with mental health problems and areas in which services can become more gender sensitive.Design/methodology/approachTwo focus groups were conducted with service users with intellectual disabilities and mental health problems in addition to two focus groups with a variety of staff. Subsequently, individual interviews were conducted with both male and female staff members employed in residential and community intellectual disability services. The number of participants totalled 54 (16 service users and 38 staff). Thematic analysis was adopted in order to identify dominant themes in the discourse of these stakeholder groups.FindingsThe analysis produced a number of themes which include: compliance versus challenge; vulnerability; expression of emotion; gender equality; same sex support; caring qualities; and boundaries.Originality/valueA number of suggestions for improving services are discussed in the context of the current findings.