1: Intellectual Disability Nursing: Origins and Contemporary Challenges

This research monograph concerns itself with the telling of stories. Those stories are of a specialist section of the health care workforce in England and the Republic of Ireland; intellectual disability nurses.¹ The origins of this workforce can be traced back to a moment in time in the twentieth century, when people with intellectual disabilities were often segregated from their communities in large institutions. Such institutional provision necessitated a specialist workforce that was well educated and trained; intellectual disability nursing was to ultimately emerge to fulfil this role.

Through a series of serendipitous developments during the first half of the twentieth century, intellectual disability nursing became part of the wider nursing family. And as institutions eventually became hospitals, this professional group was considered essential for the effective delivery of medically dominated, psychiatry led regimes of care. However, many decades later, the converse has become the case; instead of being central to the delivery of care, the relevance and the specialist contribution of intellectual disability nurses has become the subject of increasing scrutiny, with some considering it now redundant in light of changes to the nature of service provision for people with intellectual disabilities. To date discussion about the future of this professional group has endured unabated; as such their survival as a specialist part of a wider health and social care workforce remains uncertain.