Quality of life of adults with moderate intellectual disabilities

The purpose of my master thesis is to analyse the quality of life of adults with moderate intellectual disabilities who are either living as adults at home or residing in an institution. The quality of life is measured as a difference between individual's needs and desires, and their realization possibilities in an objective environment. The study includes eighty-one persons with moderate intellectual disabilities who were asked to express their needs and desires. On the other hand, the realization of which was assessed by parents (or guardians), if the person is living at home, or staff, if the person is institutionalized. The following topics are discussed in my thesis: physical needs, material supply, emotional needs, rights, self-determination, personal growth, social relationships and social belonging. The focus is to determine whether the given environment provides adequate conditions for the quality of life based on the individual’s subjective experience. Data are obtained with questionnaires filled in by persons with moderate intellectual disabilities and evaluators - parents, guardians, staff. Except for material supply and social relationships areas, the analysis did not show statistically significant differences in quality of life between the group living at home and the one residing in an institution. In most areas, the difference between aspirations and objective indicators were higher for the group residing in an institution. In conclusion, the quality of life is higher for those living at home than those residing in an institution