Families needs are diverse and complex. Anyone can have a learning disabled child so there can never be a typical family experience or a single family carer perspective. All families need to be respected for their unique qualities.

Having said this - families with a learning disabled member do share many experiences. There are many positive sides to caring for a learning disabled child but research also shows that families are disadvantaged compared to families where there is not a disabled child. These include:

• High levels of stress
• Financial disadvantage through loss of earnings and the high cost of caring
• Health problems
• Isolation
• Problems with finding suitable housing
• Increased risk of martial breakdown

(Quoted in 'Family Matters', DoH. 2001 – Beresford P. 1995.)

Research also shows us that whilst the situation is difficult for white family carers, in the ways described above, the situation for families from minority ethnic and black communities is qualitatively worse on a number of key indicators. These include:

• high levels of unmet need - people are often completely unknown to services
• poverty
• poor housing
• social isolation
• lack of information
• culturally appropriate services

(Baxter C. 1999 and Mir G. et al. 2001.)

What many families share in common is their relationship to and perceptions of services. As we will see below, many families feel frustrated by their encounters with services and the staff in them. ‘Stress is caused more often by trying to deal with the service system than any particular characteristic of the person with learning disabilities’, concluded a study of family carers in the Bristol area. ('In Their Own Right', Norah Fry 2000.)