ABSTRACT
Improvements to health care and the impact of deinstitutionalization have significantly increased the life expectancy of people with intellectual disability, few of whom survived past their early twenties in the first part of the twentieth century. Most people with mild intellectual impairment now have a life expectancy comparable with that of the general population and, while differences still exist for people with more severe impairments or specific genetic syndromes, the gap between their lifespan and population norms has reduced significantly (Patja et al. 2000). For example, between 1960 and 1995 the lifespan of people with Down’s syndrome more than tripled from an average of 15 to 50 years (Haveman 2004). In Australia, people with mild, moderate and severe levels of impairment can expect to live for 74.0, 67.6 and 58.6 years respectively compared with a population median of 78.6 years (Bittles et al. 2002). Increased longevity means that adults with intellectual disability are muchmore likely to outlive their parents than in previous decades. As the quote in the title, taken from an Australian report, suggests, however, parental attitudes towards the extended life course of their adult children are often associated with anxiety and fear rather than celebration and recognition of potential for new opportunities (Bigby 2000; Keyzer et al. 1997a, b).
