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Construct and criterion validities of the Service Need Assessment Profile (SNAP): a measure of support for people with disabilities
- Authors:
- GUSCIA Roma, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 31(3), September 2006, pp.148-155.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
The Service Need Assessment Profile (SNAP) measures individual functional needs in areas of daily living. It produces a support profile, detailing the time allocations for staff support to assist in each area of need. The Supports Intensity Scale (SIS) is a support needs assessment scale designed to provide an objective measure of a person's need for support in medical, behavioural, and life activities. SIS can be used for individualised support planning, clinical judgements regarding support needs, resource allocation and financial planning. The Inventory for Client and Agency Planning (ICAP) assesses adaptive and maladaptive behaviours and gathers additional information to determine type and amount of special assistance that people with disabilities need. This study evaluated the construct and criterion validities of SNAP in relation to the SIS and ICAP, using assessment data from 114 individuals with a range of disabilities and levels of severity. Construct and criterion validities were supported for the SNAP by high correlations with SIS, ICAP, and staff estimates of support needs and by its capacity to discriminate between sub‐groups in expected ways. The results provide support for the use of SNAP as a support needs instrument.
The impact of four family support programmes for people with a disability in Ireland
- Authors:
- DALY Louise, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 19(1), 2015, pp.34-50.
- Publisher:
- Sage
- Place of publication:
- London
Background: This article reports on an evaluation of four family support programmes in Ireland for families of people with a physical or an intellectual disability or autism. The focus of the evaluation, which took place within a year of the programmes’ completion, was on establishing whether the programmes had an impact on families’ capacity to effectively support their family member. Method: A mixed-method design was used, which included a survey (n = 38) and interviews (n = 19) with participating family members. Ethical approval for the study was given by the relevant university ethics committee. Results: Findings suggest that participation in the programmes enhanced knowledge, attitudes, and competencies of families and also impacted their ability to advocate for their family member and to connect with the community. Discussion and conclusions: Whilst outcomes were overwhelmingly positive, further follow-up would be required to ascertain if sustained capacity building took place. (Publisher abstract)
Development and evaluation of a staff training program on palliative care for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities
- Authors:
- HAHN Joan E., CADOGAN Mary P.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 8(1), March 2011, pp.42-52.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Among the barriers and disparities that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities face at the end of life are limited educational opportunities and a lack of targeted training materials on palliative care for staff who provide their day-to-day care. This article reports on a project undertaken to develop, implement and evaluate a palliative care curriculum and educational programme to meet the particular learning needs of staff providing services and supports for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities living in long-term care settings. The programme was designed for staff providing palliative care in 5 developmental centres and 2 community facilities in California. The article describes the curriculum development, implementation, and evaluation to determine satisfaction with and effectiveness of the training programme at the end of the training course and at a 2 year follow-up. The authors report that participants' ratings of their levels of preparation and confidence to provide palliative care improved from pre-training to post-training, and that post-training practice changes in palliative care occurred. They conclude that the need for the development of a set of training materials for staff specific to palliative care for people with lifelong disabilities was confirmed in the study.
Rater bias and the measurement of support needs
- Authors:
- GUSCIA Roma, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 31(3), September 2006, pp.156-160.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
The development and use of support need instruments for funding disability services is a relatively recent initiative. Although the use of these measures appears at face value to provide an objective measure of support needs, little is known about their psychometric properties, particularly with respect to rater bias and purpose of assessment. A measure of support that has been developed in Australia to provide estimates of service needs and associated funding is the Service Need Assessment Profile (SNAP). This study investigated whether SNAP scores obtained for different assessment purposes – research and funding – are affected by rater bias, by comparing SNAP to 3 other measures of support from 29 people with intellectual disabilities.The authors found that SNAP scores completed for funding purposes showed an individual's support needs to be much greater than comparison scores on both SNAP and the 3 other measures obtained for research purposes. The results suggest that support measures such as SNAP may significantly overestimate support needs when raters know the assessment is being used for funding purposes
Positive behavioural support for children and young people with developmental disabilities in special education settings: a systematic review
- Authors:
- BEQIRAJ Lorena, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, early cite February 2022,
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Background: Positive behavioural support (PBS) can be effective in supporting children and young people (CYP) with developmental disabilities. This systematic review focused on describing the components and nine characteristics of PBS that have been used with CYP with developmental disabilities in special education settings, and the evidence for PBS effectiveness in these settings. Additionally, facilitators and barriers to PBS implementation, and experiences of stakeholders, were investigated. Method: Systematic searches followed a registered protocol, and 30 studies were identified, narratively synthesised, and critically appraised. Results: From the 30 studies included, 10 reported the presence of all 9 PBS characteristics, 17 reported on 8 PBS characteristics, and 3 reported on 7 characteristics. Overall, 28 studies demonstrated significant decreases in behaviours that challenge and increases in alternative behaviours, if increasing alternative behaviours was part of the interventions. Conclusions: There was a lack of evidence on facilitators and barriers, and a lack of qualitative studies exploring experiences of stakeholders with PBS in special education settings. The available evidence suggested that not all studies reported on all PBS characteristics when describing the approach followed. In addition, available evidence suggested that most studies demonstrated effectiveness of PBS regarding the measured outcomes. Implications and future directions are discussed. (Edited publisher abstract)
A tablet-based program to enable people with intellectual and other disabilities to access leisure activities and video calls
- Authors:
- LANCIONI Giulio E., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, 15(1), 2020, pp.14-20.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- London
Purpose: This study evaluated a tablet-based program to help eight participants with moderate intellectual disability, sensory and/or motor impairments, and lack of expressive or expressive and receptive verbal skills to select and access leisure activities and video calls independently. Methods: The program relied on the use of a tablet (i.e., Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 LTE) with 8-inch screen, Android 6.0 Operating System, front camera, proximity sensor and multimedia player. The tablet was fitted with a SIM card and two specific applications, that is, WhatsApp Messenger for making video calls and MacroDroid for automating the tablet’s functioning in accordance with the program conditions. The tablet presented pictures concerning leisure activities and preferred partners for video calls. The participant could select any activity or partner by touching (or nearing his or her hand to) the tablet’s proximity sensor. Results: During the baseline (i.e., without the program), the participants failed to access leisure activities or video calls. During the post-intervention phase (i.e., with the program), they selected and accessed those activities and calls independently and spent between about 75% and 90% of the session time engaging with them. Conclusion: The tablet-based program can be highly beneficial for people like the participants of this study. (Publisher abstract)
Gig buddies: project report: January 2013 - December 2014
- Author:
- STAY UP LATE
- Publisher:
- Stay Up Late
- Publication year:
- 2015
- Pagination:
- 42
- Place of publication:
- Brighton
This evaluation report looks at how the Gig Buddies scheme has developed, the lessons learned, and the way support is offered to people to be less socially isolated while new types of volunteers are created in the process. Gig Buddies is a project that pairs up people with and without learning disabilities in Sussex to be friends and to go to events together. This report also looks at the plans to replicate Gig Buddies as a social franchise (‘Gig Buddies in a box’) by sharing experience and creating a model that enables replication, whilst also protecting the integrity of the project. The report argues that the pilot project demonstrates that Gig Buddies has the potential to transform communities, enabling many more people with learning disabilities and autism to be less socially isolated and unleashing the capacity of communities to become more involved in voluntary work. (Edited publisher abstract)
Shared Care Scotland inspiring breaks programme
- Author:
- SHARED CARE SCOTLAND
- Publisher:
- Shared Care Scotland
- Publication year:
- 2011
- Pagination:
- 15p.
- Place of publication:
- Dunfermline
Shared Care Scotland embarked on a Scotland-wide programme of local Inspiring Breaks workshops to help individuals with support needs and unpaid carers to be more actively involved in shaping the short break and respite care services they receive. One goal of the workshops was to provide service users and carers with the information, skills and confidence they need to work with health and social care to determine the short break support they want. The workshops were delivered with the involvement of Peer Facilitators who were themselves living with a long term condition, or caring for someone with one. Nineteen workshops were delivered to a total of 240 people between October 2010 and June 2011, including one workshop specifically for carers of people with mental health problems and one for young carers. This report describes the process of delivering the Inspiring Breaks programme, learning from the programme, feedback from both participants and peer-facilitators, and ideas for the future. The feedback from participants and peer-facilitators demonstrates that the workshops were on the whole a valuable experience for those involved. Involving local authorities in the programme has encouraged them to think more broadly about how they can open up more flexible short break opportunities. Future plans, building on the findings of these workshops, are discussed.
Disabled citizens as researchers – challenges and benefits of collaboration for effective action and change
- Authors:
- HOLLINRAKE Sue, SPENCER Sarah, DIX Geof
- Journal article citation:
- European Journal of Social Work, 22(5), 2019, pp.749-762.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This article reports on the evaluation of an initial pilot for a collaborative research project undertaken in an English county between a service user-led Coalition of Disabled People, the local authority and local university. The project sought to map the assets and resources for/of disabled people in their local community as well as needs and gaps, to inform the Coalition’s strategic planning and raise awareness of disability issues across the county. The article discusses an inclusive, co-productive approach using participatory action research. It focuses on experiences from the pilot stage of the project and considers how the authors worked together with the required knowledge exchange and power-sharing to recruit and train researchers with expertise from their personal experience of disability. Recruitment ensured they had relevant qualities and skills that could be developed, to increase their confidence, knowledge and skills set as researchers. They then undertook photo-elicited, semi-structured interviews with other disabled people, analysed findings and created photographic exhibitions for dissemination and awareness raising. Demonstrating a commitment to emancipatory research and collective action for change, the discussion considers the promotion of shared values within the research team, and explores the benefits and challenges encountered during the process and how the particular stages were managed to achieve the beneficial outcomes of the pilot. The article seeks to add to the literature of participatory/emancipatory action research for social work. (Edited publisher abstract)
“I’m just trying to cope for both of us”: challenges and supports of family caregivers in participant-directed programs
- Authors:
- MILLIKEN Aimee, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 62(2), 2019, pp.149-171.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Recently, national attention has focused on the needs of family caregivers providing complex chronic care, noting the necessity to better understand the scope of challenges they encounter. Although a robust body of literature exists about the scope of family caregiving, little is known specifically about the experiences and perspectives of family caregivers who support participant directed (PD) participants, particularly across the caregiving trajectory. Therefore, the aim of this qualitative descriptive study was to describe what family caregivers of individuals with developmental disabilities, physical disabilities, ageing, or chronic health conditions identify as the challenges they experience as complex, and their perceptions of the effectiveness and gaps in family support resources in PD. Semi-structured interviews were audio-recorded with a purposive sample of caregivers. Transcribed interviews were analysed using conventional content analysis. Fifty-four caregivers of individuals with a range of disabilities participated (age 34–78, M 59.9 ± 8.8; male 19%; spouse 17%, parent 61%). Six categories emerged from the analysis: contextualising complexity, complexity in transitions, coping with complexity: advocacy & isolation, supportive support, unsupportive support, and systems challenges. Caregivers emphasised the interplay between unpredictability, transitions, and complexity and the interaction between the person receiving support, the caregiver’s own situation, and the environment. Findings highlight the need, and provide a guide, for family assessment and for tailoring interventions matched to the profiles and self-identified challenges of families living with disability. Social workers can learn what families see as complex and what support broker behaviours families find helpful, and which not. (Edited publisher abstract)