Page 22 - Community Living Issue 31-3

research

Fathers with learning disabilities: experiences of

fatherhood and of adult social care services

daryl dugdale and Jon symonds, from the Norah Fry Centre for Disability Studies at the
University of Bristol, talked to fathers with learning disabilities about their experiences of
social care services and found they were often sidelined, with more attention paid to mothers

Background compounded by the experience of
We now know a considerable amount learning disability. One father spoke of key messages
about what it is like to be a parent with being a lone parent for his (now adult)
learning disabilities, but most research children but not being able to read the ● Fathers with learning disabilities can
focuses on mothers. Much less is known letters from school. Another described be strongly motivated to care for
about the views and experiences of feeling excluded from life at his children’s their children.
fathers with a learning disability and the school because he was not included in the
challenges they experience. invitations to the parents’ evenings. ● They may experience stressful
This research carried out in 2016 set out For four of the eight fathers, the challenges from parenting, but
to fill this gap in knowledge. experience of stress was so great they receive less support than mothers.
sought support for their mental health
findings through formal health services. ● Practitioners can engage fathers with
The men spoke about painful experiences Interestingly, the support they received their feelings about parenthood,
in their childhoods, whether through for this was from general health services. how they cope with the tasks of
school or difficult situations with their When they discussed support for parenthood, and manage their
own families. One man told us his father parenting, they were more likely to tell us strategies for coping with stress.
felt he would not amount to anything that they felt left out by children’s services
because of his learning disability. which focused their visits on the mother.
Becoming a father is an important event This is in line with research on supporting to be “sort of there, sort of in the
in any man’s life but, for some of the men families more widely, but the impact on the background”, with them playing a
we spoke to, this seemed to have added fathers seemed to be more pronounced in secondary role in the child’s life.
significance because it was a chance to terms of their mental health. There was general agreement among
prove other people wrong about what This focus on the mother was reflected practitioners that parenting work was
they were capable of. in our conversations with practitioners; it primarily focused on mothers and, when
Caring for young children is stressful was rare for them to have worked directly fathers were involved with services, the
and we heard about coping with having to with fathers in the learning disability field. focus of the work was on other aspects of
get up at night, or negotiate with a As one practitioner put it, when work their lives.
partner about who would do which tasks. was being conducted with parents who The two extended pieces of work we
Some of these challenges were had learning disabilities, fathers seemed heard about were from mental health
practitioners. Their work focused on the
men’s mental health in different ways, but
Fathers with learning disabilities and their experiences of adult social each led to a more nuanced piece of work
care services about men’s roles as fathers in their
families.
aims To explore the experiences of fathers with learning disabilities about being a We believe that the relationship
father and of their experiences with adult social care services. between men’s mental health and their
methods We worked with a group of four fathers whom we consulted about the identities as fathers needs more
study. We distributed information about the research through the Working Together investigation, particularly in light of
with Parents Network and the Elfrida Society. We interviewed eight fathers who services tending to focus on one and not
identified as having experience of learning disability services and lived in england. the other.
We also interviewed nine practitioners from adult learning disability services that The implications of this echo existing
had links to the fathers in other parts of the country. knowledge about parenting with learning
summary In 2016, the good practice guidelines for working with parents with a disabilities more generally, which are
learning disability were updated. The issues experienced by fathers with learning included in Reaching Out: Think Family
disabilities and how practitioners can respond are explored. (Cabinet Office, 2007). As this guidance
recognises, families’ needs do not always
Read the report fit neatly into specialist services. Closer
Dugdale D, Symonds J (2017) Fathers with Learning Disabilities and their Experiences working between adults’ and children’s
of Adult Social Care Services. School for Social Care Research, School for Policy services is one way to improve this.
Studies, University of Bristol. www.sscr.nihr.ac.uk/fathers-with-learning-disabilities- Although supporting parents with
left-out-of-support-study-finds/ learning disabilities is recommended in
the guidance, the findings from this study

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