Road to recovery: Understanding the impact of COVID and recovery phases on children and young people with Intellectual Disabilities and their families

智力障碍(ID)的特征是社交和认知困难，这些困难往往与挑战性行为有关。据报道，智障儿童和青年及其照顾者的精神健康问题水平有所增加。新冠肺炎应对战略需要限制获得教育、临时性护理和专家服务的机会，因此减少了对家庭的可用支持，后果未知。儿童协会最近的一份报告(2020年)强调了患有智力障碍儿童的相对脆弱性，该报告指出，由于慢性精神疾病，智力障碍儿童更容易受到福祉和心理健康问题的影响，在适应常规变化和了解正在发生的事情方面需要紧急支持。尽管英国最近实施了广泛的疫苗接种计划，但这些常规变化和获得服务的机会的减少仍将持续一段时间，进一步加剧患有ID的儿童及其父母的心理健康结果。随着我们进入COVID过渡阶段，当前的项目将：1)确定有ID儿童的家庭的家庭结构和社会人口结构，这些家庭面临更大的父母和儿童负面心理健康后果的风险；2)探索患有ID的CYP和他们的照顾者在COVID和过渡阶段的生活经历3)了解CYP和父母在康复阶段的经验，包括COVID的持久影响。

Intellectual disabilities (ID) are characterised by social, and cognitive difficulties that are often associated with challenging behaviours. Increased levels of mental health issues have been reported in children and young people with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) and their caregivers. The COVID-19 response strategy entailed limiting access to education, respite care, and specialist services, therefore reducing the available support for families, with unknown consequences. The relative vulnerability of children with ID was highlighted by a recent report by the Children's Society (2020) which indicated that children with ID are more susceptible to wellbeing and mental health issues as a result of COVID and require urgent support in adapting to routine changes and understanding what is going on. These routine changes and reduction in access to services will continue for some time despite the recent implementation of the UK wide vaccination programme, further compounding mental health outcomes in children with ID and their parents.As we move into COVID transition phase, the current project will: 1) identify the family structure and social demographics of families who have a child with ID who are at greaterrisk of parent and child negative mental health outcomes; 2) explore the lived experiences of CYP with ID and their caregivers during COVID and transition phases 3) understand the CYP's and parent's experience of the recovery phase, including the lasting effects of COVID.