General practitioners' perception of their role in care for people with intellectual disability

The present study set out to determine general practitioners' (GPs') view o f their role in the care of people with intellectual disability who live in the community, and to explore the special issues which providing this care raises for them. A postal questionnaire was sent to a random sample of 250 out of the 698 GPs in the southern region. Twenty statements were presente d and participants indicated the extent of their agreement with each statem ent on a seven-point Likert-type scale. After each scaled response, an open -ended question obtained a written expansion of the numerical response. The se qualitative responses were analysed thematically, and combined with desc riptive and cluster analyses of quantitative responses to provide a robust assessment of the characteristics of respondents providing contrasting repl ies. The role of GPs as parr of the group of carers for people with intelle ctual disability was well recognized. Their normal practice routines may no t always be adequate because of the small number of patients an individual GP might care of and their lack of explicit training in the special medical needs of such people.