Beyond a logic of choice: the role of family narratives in ethical, person‐centred support for individuals with intellectual disabilities

This article demonstrates the important role family narratives can play in providing ethical, person‐centred support for people with severe intellectual disabilities living in supported accommodation. Focusing on the story of Daniel, a 65‐year‐old man residing in a group home in Australia, I illustrate, through the lens of his mother Arleen, how family narratives foreground those with intellectual disabilities as holders and makers of memories, offering valuable social and narrative contexts for their ethical treatment. I conceptualize family narratives as evolving frameworks that give meaning to the lives of people, both individually and as a group, grounding shared and individual ways of being and understanding through the passage of time. In a time where the disability sector increasingly emphasizes personal autonomy and choice for service users, I argue for an embodied understanding of ethics, of paying the other their due, by attending to the stories that constitute people as relational beings. This is particularly relevant in the context of consumer‐oriented support, which can drive individualizing, one‐size‐fits‐all approaches to a person's ethical treatment. Such narratives have the potential to influence professional practice and promote a more connected approach to person‐centred support that recognizes the embodied and relational dimensions of our lives.