The Edinburgh university survey, centred around young people with intellectual disabilities (ID) asks parents to share their lockdown experiences.
The hope is that the survey will allow families to be better supported in the future.
The parents experiences through lockdown should help researchers gauge how it has affected parents and carers, and allow them to make recommendations on the provision of services as restrictions ease.
So far 134 parents/carers have completed the survey, half of them parents of ID kids and half of them parents of typically developed kids. Surveying both groups allows researchers to compare their findings. To take part in the survey email – hchrist5@ed.ac.uk
Over half of the respondents said their child experienced mild or moderate symptoms of depression, stress and anxiety. The researchers also found a link between an increase in parent’s poor mental health and children with challenging behaviours such as over excitement.
When the two groups were compared, parents of children with ID showed poorer mental health.
Across the whole sample, it was seen that, before lockdown parents relied on informal help from friends or family for support. This has decreased during the lockdown and is not yet back to pre-lockdown levels.
The same was seen for other types of support such as respite care and outreach services. This can be attributed, according to the survey, to services not being able to open or resume full time during the lockdown.
Researchers also stated that there is still, post lockdown, a lack of service uptake because services are not available. Lead researcher Hope Christie, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Health in Social Sciences, said: “More work is needed to find out how best to support families.”
Follow this link to listen to parents lockdown experiences – https://bit.ly/30rma7y
