Caring for an adult child with cognitive disabilities: meeting the dual needs of an adult and child.

ABSTRACT

A significant proportion of families in the United States provide care for an adult child who has a cognitive impairment. Significant issues may arise in the context of providing this care, including medical concerns, the nature of the relationship between the adult cognitively impaired child and his or her parents, safety concerns in the home, difficulties that the adult child may face in the community, and employment-related issues. We focus, as well on the need to plan for the future through the execution of powers of attorney, living wills, and accessing government benefits for the individual Caregiver stress is also a concern. We provide various alternatives for the management of these issues.