Parental concerns of persons entangled in experiencing the relationship of a woman and man with intellectual disabilities as a couple raising a child. Around the (lack of) good support practices

Abstract

In the article presented here, I will briefly show only, as a kind of signaling, the results of the realized research sample, relating to a single family, whose experiences are connected to the entanglement in the life of an adult woman with intellectual disabilities and her partner – also a person with intellectual disabilities, who became parents and are raising a daughter. The study was embedded in a qualitative empirical model, using an open-ended in-depth interview. The intention of the article is to draw attention to the peculiar loneliness of the parents of “such a couple”, who, by undertaking ongoing assistance and support towards their adult daughter and her partner – both people with intellectual disabilities and a granddaughter, present an example of the best practices of support and assistance in the tasks of everyday life. However, it currently remains reduced exclusively to the circle of the immediate family, remaining, as it were, her private affair. In this context, the lack of (not just good, but any) institutional practices of support and assistance systemically provided to the couple/relationship – two people with intellectual disabilities living together (and raising a child), adequate to the current individual life situation and related needs, is glaringly evident.