Barbara LeRoy

Violence Against Women with Physical Disabilities

This study explored risk factors for violence among a sample of adult women with physical disabilities. Fifty-six percent (100) of the 177 women participating in the study indicated a positive history of abuse. Of the women who reported abuse, most reported multiple abuse situations and abusers who were typically their male partners. In addition, only a small proportion of women sought and received adequate help. Women who indicated that they did not seek help were asked why this was the case. Their responses included: feeling that they could handle it themselves, having other sources of support available, being unaware of where to go, feeling embarrassed, feeling guilty about being a burden or that it was their fault, fear that abuser would come after them, fear of not being believed, and, to a lesser extent, concern that the shelter would lack appropriate accommodations. These findings highlight the importance of intervention strategies including advocacy activities for women with disabilities, activities with schools, activities to deter and prevent partner and caregiver violence, community awareness activities, and dissemination activities.

Open Road or Blind Alley? Welfare Reform, Mothers, and Children with Disabilities

Welfare reform was examined for 39 Michigan families whose children have significant health or intellectual and behavioral disabilities. As a group, these families received little specialized assistance or services to address their unique needs. Family-cited barriers to self-sufficiency included poorly trained welfare caseworkers, limited public transportation, and inadequate child care. Having an older child was the only discriminating variable between working and non-working mothers. However, working mothers only had temporary positions with no benefits and low pay. All families, whether employed or not, lived below the poverty line.

Analysing family service needs of typically underserved families in the USA

BACKGROUND Present day service systems evolved from the traditional model of disability intervention where the child with the disability and the family were viewed as pathological entities that needed to be fixed rather than supported. Scholars have increasingly called for a greater focus on the family in service delivery, but few studies have empirically examined the practical reality of such a shift. The present paper examines the disability-related formal service supports within the family quality of life (FQOL) framework in a sample of predominantly low-income, minority families in the USA. METHODS Cross-sectional data collected from a convenience sample of 149 families using the Family Quality of Life Survey (FQOLS-2006) was analysed at the univariate, bivariate and multivariate levels. RESULTS Over half of the families indicated that they needed more help from the service system, and the largest barrier to accessing services was a lack of information. Almost all families viewed service support as very important to their overall FQOL; however, only half of them were satisfied with the formal support that they were receiving. Less than half of the families reported having many service support opportunities and high attainment of service support, although most took high initiative in pursuing formal supports. The path model illustrated the complex inter-relationships between the six dimensions of service support. CONCLUSIONS Findings underscore the need for resources to empower families and the value of using the FQOLS-2006 to ascertain the service support needs and strengths of families.

Retreat and resilience: life experiences of older women with intellectual disabilities.

Older women with intellectual disabilities remain the least studied and understood members of the disability population, and yet they often live well into late adulthood. In this exploratory study we used extensive interviews to examine the demographics, economic and personal safety nets, health, social roles, and well-being of 29 Irish and American older women with intellectual disabilities. Results suggest that these women have very limited resources, social networks, and opportunities. All the women were poor and most lived in group residences, with paid staff as their main allies and careproviders. They reported that their health was good, though it often limited their activities. Despite their societal limitations, these women reported this is the happiest period of their lives.

Measuring Physical Inclusion of People With Developmental Disabilities: Evaluation of the Macomb-Oakland Regional Center

The Macomb-Oakland Regional Center has been facilitating the movement of persons with developmental disabilities into the community for 27 years. To measure randomness of their home locations, we used a geographic-based spatial analytic approach. Involvement of allies in planning futures, number of people with disabilities residing in each home, proportion of earned income, level of disability, and level of mobility were used as explanatory variables. Monte Carlo procedures using Morans I, a measure of spatial autocorrelation, did not reveal significant clustering of residences. Regression procedures, however, did reveal that earned income was the independent variable that most explained the degree to which people were physically included. People living in smaller homes were more randomly dispersed.

The Perceptions of Welfare Reform by Michigan Families Whose Children Have Disabilities and Welfare Caseworkers

Abstract This article examines family and caseworker perceptions of welfare reform and services as they relate to families who have a child with a disability. Interviews were conducted with 39 families and 77 caseworkers. Family questions addressed their perceptions of the welfare system, factors impacting their self-sufficiency, and their perceptions of needed program changes. Caseworker questions addressed their perceptions of welfare practices and policies and their education needs related to serving families who have children with disabilities. Familial perceptions of the welfare system were validated by caseworker reports. Implications for service improvement are discussed.

Families of Children with Autism and Developmental Disabilities: A Description of their Community Interaction

Purpose – The goal of this chapter was to empirically describe the patterns and dimensions of community interaction of typically underserved families of children with autism and other developmental disabilities within a family quality of life (FQoL) context. Methodology – We utilized the theoretical framework of FQoL to examine the community interactions of 149 families who voluntarily participated in this study. The Family Quality of Life Survey (FQoLS-2006) was used to collect data from the primary caregivers of the children with the disability, 92% of which were mothers. We conducted an in-depth examination of the six dimensions (importance, opportunities, initiative, attainment, stability, and satisfaction) of community interaction. Findings – Most families viewed community interaction as very important to their FQoL and the majority (62%) were satisfied with their community interaction, although just over a third reported high attainment, and only 48% reported having adequate opportunities for community interaction. Families of children with autism reported lower attainment of community interaction when compared to families of children with other developmental disabilities (t=2.63, df=147, p=0.01). Some race-related and child-related differences were also observed in the initiative taken to pursue community interaction and discrimination experienced by families. Limitations – Results must be interpreted with caution, as the participants in this study were all volunteers and the majority were mothers, and therefore may not be representative of all families of children with disabilities. Despite the limitations, findings from this study are a first step in understanding the multidimensional nature of community interaction of low-income, minority families.

Comparing Travel Training Innovations in Hong Kong and the United States

Transportation services involving travel training provide 1 means of improving the community inclusion of persons with disabilities. Looking at 2 distinct situations, Hong Kong and the United States, this study made inquiries about the properties of the differing systems in place to improve this inclusiveness. Patterns can be identified concerning their approaches for increasing the use of fixed route transportation systems, but each had differences concerning enabling legislation, scope, and funding mechanisms. We provide generalizable suggestions for increasing the use of fixed route transportation.

Concurrent Validity of the International Family Quality of Life Survey

ABSTRACT The measurement of the social construct of Family Quality of Life (FQOL) is a parsimonious alternative to the current approach of measuring familial outcomes using a battery of tools related to individual-level outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the internal consistency and concurrent validity of the International FQOL Survey (FQOLS-2006), using cross-sectional data collected from 65 family caregivers of children with developmental disabilities. It shows a moderate correlation between the total FQOL scores of the FQOLS-2006 and the Beach Centers FQOL scale. The validity of five FQOLS-2006 domains was supported by the correlations between conceptually related domains.

Designing Accessible Managed Care Services for People with Physical Disabilities: Consumer Suggestions Within an Emergent Design Process

ABSTRACT Persons with physical disabilities have difficulty accessing health care. This has become more pronounced with the emergence of managed care and other efforts to limit growing healthcare costs. In responding to a states Medicaid office interest in designing accessible health services, a consumer-based evaluation including a series of nine focus groups (96 participants) was conducted using an emergent design method. Our inductive analysis approach identified difficulties and provided the basis for recommending strategies to improve access. Two sets of consumer recommended strategies consistently were expressed during this process: (1) initiating one-to-one advocacy to improve local service coordination and (2) performing person-centered planning at enrollment in a managed care plan to facilitate appropriate and prompt access. These access strategies formed the basis for a later intervention design.