Ageing and increased longevity amongst people with intellectual disabilities: an editorial

Abstract

Men and woman with intellectual disabilities are living longer and comprise a growing proportion of this vulnerable population (Emerson and Hatton, 2008). Seen in the light of policies promoting equal rights, this increase in longevity flags up how important it is to understand ageing and longer life in that part of the citizenry which can be defined by life-long deficits in intellectual and social functioning. What kinds of lives are older adults with intellectual disabilities living? Few, if any, will have acquired the properties, pensions and incomes that their peers in the baby boomer generation are enjoying. Nor will their lives have been punctuated by the milestones of career marriage, and parenthood. What, if anything, could reaching retirement-age mean for people who may have spent almost their entire lives in an enclave of welfare services? This can mean encountering services that often fail to meet the needs of older persons with disabilities and in the case of specialist disability services, often struggle to meet their age-related frailties (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2018).