Kindness and curious kinships in the lives of family carers of adults with learning disabilities

Ribenfors, Francesca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5012-4816, Smith, Martina ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2499-4241, Runswick-Cole, Katherine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9658-9718 and Ryan, Sara ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7406-1610 (2025) Kindness and curious kinships in the lives of family carers of adults with learning disabilities. International Journal of Care and Caring. ISSN 2397-8821

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Abstract

This article engages with transcripts from 12 family carers to explore kindness in the lives of family carers and adults with learning disabilities. Knowing that kindness matters and understanding it to be linked to an expansive notion of kinship that transcends familial ties, we examine its presence and absence in interactions between family carers and health and social care professionals, services and systems. Our findings show how a lack of curiosity and disconnection from kin hinders kindness and isolates carers, highlighting the need to embed a socially just, cultural politics of kindness in health and social care services and systems.