Examining the Needs of Culturally Diverse Rural Caregivers who Have Adults with Severe Developmental Disabilities Living with Them

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study of rural caregivers who have adults with severe developmental delays living at home with them. It examines their demographic characteristics, their perceived levels of stress, and the coping skills they use to deal with that stress. This article provides information on the availability and utilization of social services for the adults with mental retardation and developmental disabilities (MR/DD) and their families. In addition, the service needs, stresses experienced, and coping skills of these families are examined according to majority and minority racial status. This type of information should be valuable to policy makers, agency administrators, and program planners to improve the development, targeting, and accessibility of rural programs and services. For the purpose of this study, the term “developmental disability” refers to both mental and physical delays and is sometimes represented as MR/DD, which is consistent with the literature on this population.