Family involvement in the pre-discharge assessment of long-stay patients with learning disabilities: a qualitative study

Abstract

This study focuses on relatives' attitudes to, and feelings about, their involvement in a programme of individual assessments carried out in anticipation of the discharge of adults with learning disabilities from a long-stay hospital. A semi- structured schedule was used to interview a randomly selected sample of parents and close relatives of patients, who had taken part in the assessment programme. It emerged that although most respondents were reasonably satisfied with the assessment process itself, this did not imply that they were satisfied with their relative's future prospects. Five key elements contributed to the sense of dissatisfaction that they felt: they were concerned at the radical nature of the policy reversal; they were finding the resettlement process stressful ; they feared the consequences of discharging vulnerable patients; they described a sense of powerlessness in the decision-making process and they suspected that limited funding was an important factor in the situation. It was concluded that although attempts had been made to involve relatives in the assessment process, respondents had little sense of working in partnership with professionals.