Kontakt 2022, 24(4/2022):316-323 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2022.034

Factors influencing the (non) use of social services - from the point of view of family members from selected municipalities of the Moravian-Silesian Region who provide care and guardianship for a loved one with an intellectual disabilitySocial Sciences in Health - Original article

Anna Musialová^{1, *}, Romana Gulová²

¹ University of Ostrava, Faculty of Social Studies, Department of Social Work, Ostrava, Czech Republic

² Magistrate of City Havířov, Department of Social Affairs, Department of Social and Legal Protection of Children, Havířov, Czech Republic

Introduction: Despite the fact that caregivers see social services as an important form of support, in the Czech Republic we are increasingly encountering situations where a person with a disability lives together with their parents in the same household until the caregiver becomes elderly or dies. These families use the bare minimum of social services or none at all. Goal: The goal of this paper is to present factors identifying the (non) use of social services from the perspective of family members from selected municipalities of the Moravian-Silesian Region who provide care and guardianship for a relative with an intellectual disability.

Methods: The data was obtained through field research, which was carried out in 2021 in six municipalities in the Moravian-Silesian Region. Twelve individual and five group semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 communication partners. The data analysis was performed using constructivist grounded theory.

Results and discussion: Most of the communication partners prefer caring for a loved one in the form of home care. The reason for refusing to use social services is negative previous experience with social services, namely dissatisfaction with the quality. The issues that family members deal with when providing care and guardianship are: coping with demanding care, fatigue, isolation, loss of social contacts with friends and family, dealing with missing social relationships, the future housing of a loved one, and maintaining contact with the cared-for person.

Conclusions: To be able to take into account the individual wishes and possibilities of each client, it is necessary to focus on the coordination and networking of support at the community when planning social and follow-up services. Person-centered planning should be offered as a suitable starting point. A newly developed form of support for people with disabilities and caregivers, which could effectively supplement the network of social and follow-up services in the community, is homesharing (a form of respite care based on community assistance).

Keywords: Guardianship; Informal carers; Intellectual disability; Social services

Grants and funding:

The research was financed by the specific research support of the University of Ostrava as part of the project SGS01/FSS/2021.

Conflicts of interest:

The authors have no conflict of interests to declare.

Received: June 14, 2022; Revised: September 11, 2022; Accepted: October 21, 2022; Prepublished online: November 16, 2022; Published: December 19, 2022  Show citation