‘I Waited for It until Forever’: Community Barriers to Accessing Intellectual Disability Services for Children and Their Families in Cape Town, South Africa

Mkabile, Siyabulela; Swartz, Leslie

doi:10.3390/ijerph17228504

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‘I Waited for It until Forever’: Community Barriers to Accessing Intellectual Disability Services for Children and Their Families in Cape Town, South Africa

Siyabulela Mkabile

^1,2,*

and

Leslie Swartz

Department of Psychology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7602, South Africa

Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7735, South Africa

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(22), 8504; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228504

Received: 3 September 2020 / Revised: 21 October 2020 / Accepted: 22 October 2020 / Published: 17 November 2020

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disability and Healthcare Disparities)

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Abstract

Background: Intellectual disability is more common in low- and middle-income countries than in high-income countries. Stigma and discrimination have contributed to barriers to people with intellectual disability accessing healthcare. As part of a larger study on caregiving of children with intellectual disability in urban Cape Town, South Africa, we interviewed a sub-group of families who had never used the intellectual disability services available to them, or who had stopped using them. Methods: We employed a qualitative research design and conducted semi-structured interviews to explore the views and perspectives of parents and caregivers of children with intellectual disability who are not using specialised hospital services. We developed an interview guide to help explore caregivers’ and parents’ views. Results: Results revealed that caregivers and parents of children with intellectual disability did not use the intellectual disability service due to financial difficulties, fragile care networks and opportunity costs, community stigma and lack of safety, lack of faith in services and powerlessness at effecting changes and self-stigmatisation. Conclusion: Current findings highlight a need for increased intervention at community level and collaboration with community-based projects to facilitate access to services, and engagement with broader issues of social exclusion. View Full-Text

Keywords: intellectual disability; children; South Africa; access to specialized intellectual disability services; poverty; inequality

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

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Mkabile, S.; Swartz, L. ‘I Waited for It until Forever’: Community Barriers to Accessing Intellectual Disability Services for Children and Their Families in Cape Town, South Africa. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 8504. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228504

AMA Style

Mkabile S, Swartz L. ‘I Waited for It until Forever’: Community Barriers to Accessing Intellectual Disability Services for Children and Their Families in Cape Town, South Africa. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(22):8504. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228504

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mkabile, Siyabulela, and Leslie Swartz. 2020. "‘I Waited for It until Forever’: Community Barriers to Accessing Intellectual Disability Services for Children and Their Families in Cape Town, South Africa" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 22: 8504. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228504

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