Encounters with professionals: views and experiences of mothers with intellectual disability

Abstract

Seven Swedish mothers with an intellectual disability were interviewed for this exploratory study, aimed at charting such mothers’ views and experiences of their encounters with different health and social service professionals. Three distinct themes emerged from the interviews. First, the mothers experienced the interaction to be marred by lack of comprehensibility, resulting from inadequate information and their perception of not being treated properly. Second, despite their reservations about the nature of the interaction, several of the mothers also reported having received support that had strengthened their parental ability and had been experienced as empowering. Third, several of the mothers also clearly perceived themselves as subjects needing support. The results, overall, indicated that the interaction between the mother and the professionals suffered from a certain paternalism in the attitude of the latter.