Agnes Turnpenny, TÁRKI and University of Kent
Gábor Petri, TÁRKI

Although the institutionalisation of children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities has received considerable attention in policy and research across the world, the majority of people with intellectual disabilities live with their families in the community, often with little or no formal support and experiencing high levels of social exclusion and deprivation. This panel aims to bring together empirical and policy research that explores how care practices and policies have changed across historical time and future directions. We welcome analytical and descriptive papers that address any of the following topics from a historical or longitudinal/life-course perspective:

– How policies supporting family caregiving have changed over time?

– What are the current policies supporting family caregiving and unpaid carers for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities? What are the implications of these for their socio-economic status at different stages of the life-course?

– How do family carers mobilise formal and informal resources to support the person with intellectual and developmental disabilities across the life course? What are the lived experiences of unpaid family caregiving? How has this changed over time?

We welcome papers from any region or context; however, we are particularly interested in submissions that focus on systems in transition, the ‘former communist bloc countries’ in Eastern Europe and the Global South, as well as comparative research.