Search results for ‘Subject term:"learning disabilities"’ Sort:
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'Realistic positivity': understanding the additional needs of young children placed for adoption, and supporting families when needs are unexpected
- Authors:
- COUNCIL FOR DISABLED CHILDREN, HAMBLIN Emily
- Publisher:
- Council for Disabled Children
- Publication year:
- 2018
- Pagination:
- 87
- Place of publication:
- London
This research, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Children’s Policy Research Unit, looks at the challenge of supporting families when adopted children have unexpected additional needs. It explores how adverse early experiences impact on children’s health and development in highly individual ways and can make health issues or special educational needs, including common conditions such as autism, challenging to identify. The report presents the results of interviews with six adoptive parents and thirteen professionals to identify some of these challenges. The results are discussed in the following areas: how professionals identify and understand children’s needs; how prospective adopters are informed about children’s health and development before placement, and how they seek help if concerns arise after placement; stages and transitions involved in the early years of children’s lives, including placement for adoption; parents’ seeking and engagement with services and community resources, to professional and service responses to new or emerging concerns post-placement. The report calls upon adoption agencies to ensure clear and open communication with prospective adopters about children, and also about the services and support available to families. (Edited publisher abstract)
Learning how to be (a) patient: visual analysis of accessible health information leaflets for people with intellectual disabilities
- Author:
- CHINN Deborah
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Society, 32(10), 2017, pp.485-1509.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Creation of jargon-free Easy Read health texts, incorporating carefully chosen words and images, is promoted as a way of removing health access barriers for people with intellectual disabilities. Using a social semiotic framework, this article explores the social construction of the patient with intellectual disabilities within a sample of adapted health texts, focusing on the visual images used. Images were coded and analysed according to dimensions suggested by Kress and van Leeuwen’s work on ‘visual grammar’. Images highlight the inclusion of patients with intellectual disabilities in mainstream healthcare settings. However, these patients are depicted as being inserted into somewhat idealised healthcare routines that are pre-determined and micro-managed through to completion. Consideration of risks and choices associated with healthcare use are downplayed. The article concludes that the care of patients with intellectual disabilities continues to constitute potential trouble for mainstream healthcare providers, rather than being an expected aspect of everyday practice. (Edited publisher abstract)
The accessibility of general NHS services for children with disabilities
- Authors:
- WHARTON Sarah, HAMES Annette, MILNER Helen
- Journal article citation:
- Child: Care, Health and Development, 31(3), May 2005, pp.275-282.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Through conversations with members of a parent-run support organization, mixed concerns were identified about the accessibility of general National Health Service (NHS) services for children with disabilities. A questionnaire, aimed at uncovering the main issues related to general health services for children with disabilities was designed with representatives from the parent-run support organization. The questionnaire was administered as part of a semi-structured interview with 25 parents of children with disabilities (mainly learning disabilities). Eight themes were reported 'preparation', 'flexibility', 'parking', 'physical space', 'waiting areas and consultation rooms', 'health professionals' understanding and knowledge of disabilities, particularly around communication', 'on the wards' and 'overseeing care'. Themes are presented with parents' useful comments and suggestions. As the themes are wide ranging it is suggested that the research be repeated, focusing in on particular areas of general NHS services.
The web: access and inclusion for disabled people: a formal investigation conducted by the Disability Rights Commission
- Author:
- DISABILITY RIGHTS COMMISSION
- Publisher:
- Stationery Office
- Publication year:
- 2004
- Pagination:
- 48p.
This report demonstrates that most websites are inaccessible to many disabled people and fail to satisfy even the most basic standards for accessibility recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium. It is also clear that compliance with the technical guidelines and the use of automated tests are only the first steps towards accessibility: there can be no substitute for involving disabled people themselves in design and testing, and for ensuring that disabled users have the best advice and information available about how to use assistive technology, as well as the access features provided by Web browsers and computer operating systems. Disabled people must frequently overcome additional obstacles before they can enjoy the full range of information, services, entertainment and social interaction offered by the Web: blind people need sites to provide, for example, text as an alternative to images for translation into audible or legible words by specially designed screenreading devices; partially sighted people may be especially reliant upon large-format text and effective colour contrast; people who are dyslexic or have cognitive impairments may benefit in particular from the use of simpler English or alternative text formats, such as Easy Read, and from the clear and logical layout of an uncluttered website; people whose first language is British Sign Language may also find Plain English indispensable; and people with manual dexterity impairments may need to navigate with a keyboard rather than with a mouse.
Secondary healthcare and learning disability: results of consensus development conferences
- Authors:
- CUMELLA Stuart, MARTIN David
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Learning Disabilities, 8(1), March 2004, pp.30-40.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Many people with learning disabilities live shorter lives and have poorer health than the rest of the population. This results in part from less access to healthcare, and several studies have evaluated ways of improving primary healthcare for this group. Much less attention has been paid to the experiences of people with a learning disability in general hospitals. This exploratory study used consensus development conferences of people with a learning disability, their supporters, family, professionals and managers. It was reported that hospitals frequently failed to communicate with, provide emotional support for, or adapt to the specific needs of patients with a learning disability. Hospital staff noted that community services failed to provide information about patients, and that hospital staff lacked training in communicating with people with a learning disability. Fieldwork identified a range of solutions to deal with these problems, most of which involved incremental changes in hospital and community health procedures.
Innovation: inspiring stories, radical shifts in power, exciting ideas for change
- Authors:
- PARADIGM, CHOICE SUPPORT
- Publisher:
- Paradigm
- Publication year:
- 2003
- Pagination:
- 15p.
- Place of publication:
- Lincoln
This booklet deals with the rights of people with learning difficulties to assume full citizenship. It argues that the legacy and institutionalisation of the existing welfare system make changes necessary. It argues that people with learning difficulties need to break new ground to achieve ordinary things others take for granted.
Tell all: a guide to inclusive communications
- Author:
- THOMAS Mark
- Publisher:
- Brasshouse
- Publication year:
- 2000
- Pagination:
- 86p., 2 CDs
- Place of publication:
- Birmingham
This resource offers practical guidance for educational establishments and other organisations on how to communicate clearly, be it on paper, by telephone, Internet, e-mail or sign language with disabled people.
Unequal impact? Coronavirus, disability and access to services: full report. Fourth report of session 2019–21
- Author:
- GREAT BRITAIN. Parliament. House of Commons. Women and Equalities Committee
- Publisher:
- Great Britain. House of Commons
- Publication year:
- 2020
- Pagination:
- 53
- Place of publication:
- London
This report considers disabled people's access to food shopping, health and social care services and provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities during the pandemic. It also examines the effectiveness and accessibility of the Government’s consultation and communications with disabled people about coronavirus. Disabled people who already faced substantial barriers to full participation in society, for example because services were inaccessible or they had additional health, care and support or special educational needs, have suffered a range of profoundly adverse effects from the pandemic, including starkly disproportionate and tragic deaths. The report argues that: the Government must justify its assertion that “we need to get away from the food parcel model” by publishing an ongoing assessment of disabled people’s needs for help accessing food; potentially discriminatory critical care guidelines and doctors’ blanket use of do not attempt resuscitation (DNAR) notices caused disabled people great distress; the Government should work with the NHS, British Medical Association and people with learning disabilities to ensure full reintroduction of annual health checks across the NHS and increase take up; the Government must bring forward a social care reform package, including actions to improve the quality and personalisation of care and support for working age disabled people across all social care settings; the Government must prioritise its SEND review and bring forward as a matter of urgency reforms; the Government must consult widely with disabled people and their organisations on ways to embed in the forthcoming National Strategy for Disabled People genuinely effective mechanisms by which disabled people can influence policies and practices which directly affect them. Ministers and officials involved in communicating public health messages to disabled people should undergo training in psychologically informed communications which take fully into account and empathise with disabled people’s lived experiences. (Edited publisher abstract)
Getting things changed: final report
- Author:
- UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL. Norah Fry Centre for Disability Studies
- Publisher:
- University of Bristol. Norah Fry Centre for Disability Studies
- Publication year:
- 2018
- Pagination:
- 52
- Place of publication:
- London
Final report of a multi-centre programme of research which looked at the barriers and exclusion disabled people in the UK face in different areas of their lives. It highlights how social practices - the everyday things people do in their daily lives - can exclude disabled people and how they can be changed. The research was fuelled by concerns that policy and law do not always translate into practice and demonstrates that disabling barriers have not been fully overcome by the Equality Act 2010. It also explores disabled people’s own solutions to these challenges and the conditions under which co-production can have an effect on practice. Each section of the report focuses on a different strand of the project, which covered a variety of different contexts including: interactions with people with dementia; interactions with people with learning disabilities; Open Orchestras sessions in schools with young people with profound and complex disabilities; people with learning disabilities on TV; disabled students and staff in universities; reasonable adjustments in hospitals; successful practices for supporting parents with learning difficulties; user-driven commissioning and co-production. The research found that many institutions still saw a disabled person as a ‘problem’ to be solved and that ‘co-production’ could become meaningless, a box-ticking exercise. Common themes to successful change included flexibility around the individual person, informality in setting and interaction, professionals who demonstrated humanity and communicated on a basis of equality, and support for the autonomy of all disabled people. The research was led by a team at the University of Bristol, with Disability Rights UK, the National Development Team for Inclusion and partners in three other universities and was co-produced with disabled people and their organisations. (Edited publisher abstract)
A voice for the voiceless: the Victims' Commissioner’s review into the provision of registered intermediaries for children and vulnerable victims and witnesses
- Author:
- VICTIMS' COMMISSIONER
- Publisher:
- Victims' Commissioner's Office
- Publication year:
- 2018
- Pagination:
- 90
- Place of publication:
- London
This review presents the findings from a research project carried out by the Victims’ Commissioner into the provision of Registered Intermediaries (RIs) for children and vulnerable witnesses. Registered Intermediaries (RIs) are specialists in communication provided to children and vulnerable victims and provide support in giving evidence to the police and at trial under. The review looks at the allocation of RI’s to victims and witnesses who are eligible; management of the Witness Intermediary Scheme (WIS) which is responsible for the provision of RIs; the awareness and understanding of the role of RIs by police officers and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Advocates; how WIS users assess the vulnerability and eligibility of victims and witnesses, and the process of matching requests with a suitably qualified and skilled RI. The review includes a survey of 122 RIs and interviews with 20 service users of the WIS. The results found that RIs are effective in providing communication assistance for vulnerable victims and witnesses and providing them with equality of access to justice. It also found that Police and CPS are positive about the impact of RIs. However, findings also indicate that not all eligible vulnerable victims and witnesses are being offered a RI, there is inconsistent take-up of RIs across England and Wales, limited understanding of the role in the criminal justice system and variation in how vulnerability and eligibility for RIs is assessed. The Victims’ Commissioner puts forward a number of recommendations to improve the provision of RIs. Recommendations include the development of a centralised national RI service with a national lead RI to feed into the policy and practice in the provision of RIs, and to represent RIs’ interests across the criminal justice system, as well as a fast track service for the youngest and most vulnerable of victims. (Edited publisher abstract)