Author(s): Des Hanrahan

Departments: St. John of God North East Services, Drumcar, Dunleer, Co. Louth

Keywords: Family-based short breaks, recruiting, intellectual disability, learning disability, adults, respite.

Reported: Hanrahan, D. (2006) ‘The Influence of Media and Respondent Characteristics on the Outcome of a Campaign to Recruit Host Families for Adults with Learning Disability’, British Journal of Social Work, 36 (6): 979-996.

Family-based short-break schemes depend on accessing suitable hosts.  Recruitment is seen as a major challenge yet there are no published studies that examine this for adult services.  This paper aims to redress that by describing what type of person responded to a campaign to recruit hosts for adults with learning disabilities, and to explore if there is a relationship between a) the outcome of each enquiry and the respondents and b) outcome and how the respondents found out about the service.  The study involved a retrospective examination of documented information about each of forty-nine respondents, supplemented with telephone contact.  The respondents were mainly married women aged thirty to fifty, with two or more children, from urban settings who were employed outside the home.  Most had heard about the service through newspapers and posters.  Thirty-nine per cent applied to host.  Age, family size, age of children, and location were associated with outcome.  Experience was an important predictor of outcome.  Word of mouth was the most successful means of recruiting.  While broad based advertising is shown to attract hosts, the results can be maximized by follow-up of those who do not apply immediately.  Implications for service delivery and research are discussed.