Attitudes Towards Home Care of Older Persons With Disabilities: The Case of Trinidad

Caring for persons with disabilities is challenging, yet it is assumed that people would care for their relatives with disabilities because of a feeling of closeness. Using a convergent mixed methods design, this article examines attitudes towards older persons with disabilities in the context of home care using Trinidad as a case study. The analytical framework involves (a) measuring attitudes towards the inclusion of older persons with disabilities in the home and (b) identifying the reasons for these attitudes. This framework is applied to a representative sample of 868 adult Trinidadians as well as the subsamples of adult Trinidadians dwelling and not dwelling with older persons with disabilities. Not all adult Trinidadians agreed that older persons with disabilities should be included in the home, and integrated findings indicate the need for monitoring systems for both home care and at homes for the aged.