Responding to sexuality & personal care

Aim: The study explored the provision of intimate and personal care for people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. The paper examines the evidence from this study in relation to both thesexuality of service users receiving intimate and personal care and the sexuality of staff providing intimate and personal care.

Method: Qualitative and quantitative evidence is used to review how issues relating to sexuality and to sexuality and gender surface during the provision and receipt of intimate and personal care in services for people with intellectual disability.

Results: Key issues included communication and consent to touch, the inadequacy of same gender policies, the limits of individual care guidelines in relation to responding to user’s sexuality and poor recognition of the varying sexuality of staff.

Conclusions: Greater attention needs to be given to making sexuality visible in policies and individual guidelines relating to intimate and personal care for people with intellectual disabilities, and to examine assumptions about same gender care.