Reeves Paige, McConnell David, Phelan Shanon K
Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Faculty of Health, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
J Appl Res Intellect Disabil. 2025 May;38(3):e70070. doi: 10.1111/jar.70070.
Social inclusion focussed on belonging is increasingly emphasised by disability advocates and policymakers, yet belonging often remains absent for adults labelled with intellectual disabilities. People labelled with intellectual disabilities often rely on service providers to support their belonging.
In this critically informed ethnographic work, we draw on interviews with nine disability services leaders and prolonged participatory field explorations with five adults labelled with intellectual disabilities, their friends and support workers to explore how service providers support opportunities for belonging.
Reflexive thematic analysis generated three themes: centering inclusion, belonging and rights; creating opportunities for self-exploration and 'dreaming'; and facilitating connections to people and place.
Findings highlight supporting belonging as complex work that requires a relational understanding of autonomy, work environments that support reflexivity, and the redistribution of resources to allow for higher staff wages, larger individual support contracts and funding for staff training and post-secondary education.
残疾权益倡导者和政策制定者越来越强调以归属感为重点的社会包容，但对于被贴上智力残疾标签的成年人来说，归属感往往仍然缺失。被贴上智力残疾标签的人通常依靠服务提供者来支持他们的归属感。
在这项具有批判性的人种志研究中，我们对九位残疾服务领导者进行了访谈，并与五位被贴上智力残疾标签的成年人、他们的朋友和支持人员进行了长期的参与式实地探索，以探讨服务提供者如何支持获得归属感的机会。
反思性主题分析产生了三个主题：以包容、归属感和权利为核心；创造自我探索和“梦想”的机会；促进与人和地方的联系。
研究结果强调，支持归属感是一项复杂的工作，需要对自主性有相互关系的理解、支持反思性的工作环境，以及重新分配资源，以提高员工工资、增加个人支持合同，并为员工培训和高等教育提供资金。
