Satisfaction with social care services, involvement, and participation for people with intellectual disability of the user services during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020/2021

For people with intellectual disability (ID) who receive social services under the Act Concerning Support and Services for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments (LSS), the COVID-19 pandemic has had major consequences. For example, daily activities have been closed and a ban on visitors has been introduced.

However, it is unclear how people with ID perceive that their service has been affected.

This study will examine whether people with ID feel that satisfaction with social care services, involvement, and participation has been affected by COVID-19.Involvement and participation are important parts of the Agenda 2030 to increase the health of people with disabilities. People with ID have the right to as good health as people without ID, regardless of a pandemic.

Therefore, it is important to examine if people with ID perceive that the restrictions have affected their LSS services.Study 1 will use two existing questionnaires: the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions’ (SALAR) annual National User Survey in the field of disability and a COVID-19 questionnaire sent out by the Swedish National Association for People with Intellectual Disability (FUB) to their members.

The user survey highlights the users´ perception of the LSS-services.

The user survey has data from before and during the pandemic, while the FUB survey has specific questions about the pandemic. These respective strengths of the surveys will provide a more exhaustive answer to our aim.

Study 2 will examine the mechanisms behind the results from Study 1 through focus groups with people with ID and staff from LSS activities.A collaboration group with representatives with people with ID, researchers, FUB, staff, and SALAR will work throughout the project. Together, the group will interpret the results and create interview guides for Study 2.

This will give the project high user participation and relevance.