This article outlines the difficulties that people with severe and profound intellectual and multiple disabilities may have when swallowing. The article explains the prevalence, causes and nature of swallowing difficulties for people with intellectual disabilities and discusses the assessment of swallowing, eating and drinking problems. It also examines management of swallowing problems in this cohort, and uses a case study to consider how to support someone with such difficulties in the context of Orem’s self-care deficit theory. The article concludes with broad recommendations for care.
Learning Disability Practice. 21, 1, 26-31. doi: 10.7748/ldp.2018.e1817
Correspondence Peer reviewThis article has been subject to double-blind review and checked for plagiarism using automated software
Conflict of interestNone declared
Write for usFor information about writing for RCNi journals, contact writeforus@rcni.com
For author guidelines, go to rcni.com/writeforus
Received: 24 November 2016
Accepted: 04 September 2017
or
Alternatively, you can purchase access to this article for the next seven days. Buy now
Are you a student? Our student subscription has content especially for you.
Find out more