SOUTH BIRMINGHAM PRIMARY CARE TRUST (Producer), OGI Laura (producer)
Publisher:
South Birmingham Primary Care Trust
Publication year:
2010
Pagination:
(34 mins.), DVD
Place of publication:
Birmingham
Consisting of a DVD and booklet, this project pack explains the various psychological services which are available to people with learning disabilities. It is written as a working handbook for both family and professional carers. The resource outlines what clinical psychologists do, how they work and who they may of benefit to. It provides a useful distinction between the various psychologists a person may come into contact with when accessing services. The bulk of the booklet is dedicated to a series of two-page descriptions of common clinical approaches which may be employed when working with a person with learning disabilities: psychodynamic psychotherapy, positive behavioural support, cognitive analytic therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy and family therapy. The DVD attempts to orientate users to what is likely to happen when they see a psychologist. It mirrors the booklet in structure and outlines the main psychological approaches offered to people with learning disabilities by Birmingham PCT. In addition there is a chapter titled “Service User Forum” in which members of a service user advocacy groups ask questions relating to the practicalities of seeing a psychologist.
Consisting of a DVD and booklet, this project pack explains the various psychological services which are available to people with learning disabilities. It is written as a working handbook for both family and professional carers. The resource outlines what clinical psychologists do, how they work and who they may of benefit to. It provides a useful distinction between the various psychologists a person may come into contact with when accessing services. The bulk of the booklet is dedicated to a series of two-page descriptions of common clinical approaches which may be employed when working with a person with learning disabilities: psychodynamic psychotherapy, positive behavioural support, cognitive analytic therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy and family therapy. The DVD attempts to orientate users to what is likely to happen when they see a psychologist. It mirrors the booklet in structure and outlines the main psychological approaches offered to people with learning disabilities by Birmingham PCT. In addition there is a chapter titled “Service User Forum” in which members of a service user advocacy groups ask questions relating to the practicalities of seeing a psychologist.
Subject terms:
learning disabilities, mental health services, psychology, psychotherapy;
Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, 4(4), December 2010, pp.9-14.
Publisher:
Emerald
This article provides a reflection on the current status of mental health services for people with intellectual disabilities against the historical and philosophical trend towards ‘mainstreamed’ services for this group of people. Present day services for people with intellectual disabilities would be barely recognisable to clinicians working half a century ago. Firstly, there was the closure of the institution-like hospitals as part of a general reorientation within psychiatry from the asylum to the community. Secondly, there has been a push towards incorporating people with intellectual disabilities in ‘mainstream’ services. This principle of ‘normalisation’ sits at the heart of health and social policy in the UK for people with learning disabilities. Despite this, psychiatry has retained learning disability as a distinct area of specialism. This article asks whether separate mental health of intellectual disability (MHID) services offer something that really cannot be met by mainstream services, providing arguments for their continued existence as a separate specialist entity within the field of psychiatry.
This article provides a reflection on the current status of mental health services for people with intellectual disabilities against the historical and philosophical trend towards ‘mainstreamed’ services for this group of people. Present day services for people with intellectual disabilities would be barely recognisable to clinicians working half a century ago. Firstly, there was the closure of the institution-like hospitals as part of a general reorientation within psychiatry from the asylum to the community. Secondly, there has been a push towards incorporating people with intellectual disabilities in ‘mainstream’ services. This principle of ‘normalisation’ sits at the heart of health and social policy in the UK for people with learning disabilities. Despite this, psychiatry has retained learning disability as a distinct area of specialism. This article asks whether separate mental health of intellectual disability (MHID) services offer something that really cannot be met by mainstream services, providing arguments for their continued existence as a separate specialist entity within the field of psychiatry.
Subject terms:
learning disabilities, mental health services, policy, psychiatry, social role valorisation;
Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, 4(4), December 2010, pp.40-47.
Publisher:
Emerald
It is widely considered that people with intellectual disabilities are more likely to experience mental health problems than people in the general population. The aim of this study was to seek the opinions of people with an intellectual disability who have additional mental health needs about the mental health services they receive. A semi-structured focus group methodology was used to ask the 8 participants about all aspects of the mental health services they receive, including inpatient facilities, professional contact, the support received in residential or supported living settings, and day opportunities. Four key themes were generated from the findings: views about being in hospital: good vs crap; ‘it hurt me when…’: responses of other to their difficulties; meaningful activity and employment; and needing help and support vs control. Overall, it was found that the participants valued staff who listened to them and actively tried to help with their difficulties. They also wanted choice and control over their lives, particularly with regard to meaningful day activities.
It is widely considered that people with intellectual disabilities are more likely to experience mental health problems than people in the general population. The aim of this study was to seek the opinions of people with an intellectual disability who have additional mental health needs about the mental health services they receive. A semi-structured focus group methodology was used to ask the 8 participants about all aspects of the mental health services they receive, including inpatient facilities, professional contact, the support received in residential or supported living settings, and day opportunities. Four key themes were generated from the findings: views about being in hospital: good vs crap; ‘it hurt me when…’: responses of other to their difficulties; meaningful activity and employment; and needing help and support vs control. Overall, it was found that the participants valued staff who listened to them and actively tried to help with their difficulties. They also wanted choice and control over their lives, particularly with regard to meaningful day activities.
Subject terms:
learning disabilities, mental health problems, mental health services, user views, focus groups;
Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 23(3), May 2010, pp.214-225.
Publisher:
Wiley
Government guidelines promote the use of mainstream mental health services for people with intellectual disabilities whenever possible. This study aimed to explore how people with intellectual disabilities fare in such services, by examining how service users with intellectual disabilities, their carers and service providers perceive mainstream in-patient mental health services, and to what extent their accounts are in line with key policy objectives. Face-to-face interviews with 9 service users, 9 carers and 4 community nurses were completed and analysed on a case by case basis using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The results were followed up in focus groups with service providers. The positive aspects of admission included the provision of respite, particularly for carers, and good basic care. These were outweighed by a perception of the admission as disempowering and lacking in flexible treatment provision. Accessing help emerged as a major problem, as well as the prospect of staff neglecting the specific needs of people with intellectual disabilities. The article concludes that, while there were some indications of improvements in line with recent policies and guidance, mainstream services seem a long way off realising aims of easy accessibility, person-centred practices and active partnership with intellectual disability services.
Government guidelines promote the use of mainstream mental health services for people with intellectual disabilities whenever possible. This study aimed to explore how people with intellectual disabilities fare in such services, by examining how service users with intellectual disabilities, their carers and service providers perceive mainstream in-patient mental health services, and to what extent their accounts are in line with key policy objectives. Face-to-face interviews with 9 service users, 9 carers and 4 community nurses were completed and analysed on a case by case basis using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The results were followed up in focus groups with service providers. The positive aspects of admission included the provision of respite, particularly for carers, and good basic care. These were outweighed by a perception of the admission as disempowering and lacking in flexible treatment provision. Accessing help emerged as a major problem, as well as the prospect of staff neglecting the specific needs of people with intellectual disabilities. The article concludes that, while there were some indications of improvements in line with recent policies and guidance, mainstream services seem a long way off realising aims of easy accessibility, person-centred practices and active partnership with intellectual disability services.
Subject terms:
learning disabilities, mental health services, hospital admission, user views, carers;
Learning Disability Today, 10(5), June 2010, pp.20-21.
Publisher:
Pavilion
Place of publication:
Hove
The author reports that, for many project leads who are working on implementing local “Green Light” action plans to improve mental health support for people with learning disabilities, change is proving difficult and slow to achieve. Green Light is a service improvement toolkit centred on the National Service Framework (NSF) for mental health. It includes a self-assessment checklist to evaluate how well local areas are applying the NSF to meet the specific needs of people with learning disabilities who experience mental health problems. Green Light is designed to help local areas plan action to ensure that people with learning disabilities benefit from improvements in the same way as everyone else. To encourage and support the implementation of Green Light the Care Services Improvement Partnership funded a national programme: Green Light: Making It Happen. The author discusses the themes around the struggle to implement action plans that emerged: a lack of local data; capacity issues and competing priorities; the need to change practices; engagement issues; the challenge of change; and a lack of agreements and pathways. She goes on to consider what helps and list things that appear to have made a real difference in local areas. The New Horizons short briefings series beginning in the Spring of 2010 to inform and update local decision makers is welcomed but the author believes there is still a need for a new Green Light support programme.
The author reports that, for many project leads who are working on implementing local “Green Light” action plans to improve mental health support for people with learning disabilities, change is proving difficult and slow to achieve. Green Light is a service improvement toolkit centred on the National Service Framework (NSF) for mental health. It includes a self-assessment checklist to evaluate how well local areas are applying the NSF to meet the specific needs of people with learning disabilities who experience mental health problems. Green Light is designed to help local areas plan action to ensure that people with learning disabilities benefit from improvements in the same way as everyone else. To encourage and support the implementation of Green Light the Care Services Improvement Partnership funded a national programme: Green Light: Making It Happen. The author discusses the themes around the struggle to implement action plans that emerged: a lack of local data; capacity issues and competing priorities; the need to change practices; engagement issues; the challenge of change; and a lack of agreements and pathways. She goes on to consider what helps and list things that appear to have made a real difference in local areas. The New Horizons short briefings series beginning in the Spring of 2010 to inform and update local decision makers is welcomed but the author believes there is still a need for a new Green Light support programme.
Extended abstract:
Author
COLE Angela, GREGORY Margaret.
Title
Green Light for mental health: a service improvement toolkit.
Publisher
Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities, 2004
Summary
Green Light is a framework and self audit toolkit for improving mental health support services for people with learning disabilities, providing a picture of what services should be aiming to achieve, including quality outcomes, and a self assessment checklist, and aimed at Mental Health Local Implementation Teams and Learning Disability Partnership Boards.
Contents
Part A is a guide to the pack itself and to improving services and support for people with mental health problems who have learning disabilities. Section One introduces Green Light, telling users about the pack and what it's for and giving some ideas about getting the most benefit from the toolkit. Section Two is an easy to read summary designed primarily for use with and by people with learning disabilities. Section Three has two parts which, when added together, give an overall picture of what services should be aiming to achieve. The first gives the national policy context and highlights what the government expects of services in relation to people with mental health problems who have learning disabilities. The second is about quality outcomes for people with mental health problems who have learning disabilities and for their carers, from their own perspectives. Section Four creates a concrete picture of what needs to happen ‘out there' in the reality of services. It highlights key challenges for services in moving towards integrated mental health services for people with learning disabilities; explores what the national policy objectives actually look like in practice, i.e., accessible, integrated mental health support services, using examples from around the UK wherever possible. Section Five is about how to work out what needs to be sustained or changed locally. It introduces the self-assessment checklist and some ready-to-use survey tools which are found in Part B. The self-assessment checklist is at the core of the service improvement toolkit. There is guidance about getting information and evidence to underpin your local self-assessment, and about presenting findings to the Local Implementation Teams and Partnership Board. Part B – the toolkit – has four sections. Section One contains the self-assessment checklist and an action planning proforma. Section Two is a survey of in-patient experience Section Three is a survey of community support experiences. Section Four is a survey of carers' experiences. Throughout the guide there are quotations from the test sites and from people with mental health problems who have learning disabilities, which reinforce points in the text, and references to publications, resources and sources of information. These are listed at the end.
23 references
Subject terms:
learning disabilities, mental health problems, mental health services, social care provision, evaluation;
Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 54(Supplement 1), April 2010, pp.16-27.
Publisher:
Wiley
At the turn of the 1970s the National Association for Mental Health, a voluntary organisation working closely with psychiatrists and the government to provide residential services and educational courses, adopted the 'brand name' MIND as part of its transformation into a campaigning pressure group. This article explores the historical background to key statements made by the organisation at this time regarding the association of mental health with, what was previously known as, mental handicap. The National Association for Mental Health is placed within the historical context of the movement for mental hygiene. The article investigates how the movement theorised mental health as critically related to intellect and emotionality. The author describes how the movement relegated people deemed ‘mentally deficient’ from therapeutic policies based on family relationships believed to promote mental health, and goes on to discuss the way in which a late 1950s experiment known as the Brooklands study undermined this discrimination. This was, the author suggests, paradoxical, since it built on mental hygiene theorising. The article concludes that theorisations of the relationship between intellect, emotion and mental health are still potentially discriminatory.
At the turn of the 1970s the National Association for Mental Health, a voluntary organisation working closely with psychiatrists and the government to provide residential services and educational courses, adopted the 'brand name' MIND as part of its transformation into a campaigning pressure group. This article explores the historical background to key statements made by the organisation at this time regarding the association of mental health with, what was previously known as, mental handicap. The National Association for Mental Health is placed within the historical context of the movement for mental hygiene. The article investigates how the movement theorised mental health as critically related to intellect and emotionality. The author describes how the movement relegated people deemed ‘mentally deficient’ from therapeutic policies based on family relationships believed to promote mental health, and goes on to discuss the way in which a late 1950s experiment known as the Brooklands study undermined this discrimination. This was, the author suggests, paradoxical, since it built on mental hygiene theorising. The article concludes that theorisations of the relationship between intellect, emotion and mental health are still potentially discriminatory.
Subject terms:
learning disabilities, mental health care, mental health problems, mental health services, social work history;
This report deals with services for a population that is still relatively neglected: those falling between child and adolescent psychiatry and learning disability psychiatry. It reviews the resources required for a psychiatric service to young people under 18, and their families. Starting with an overview of the changing approaches to the psychiatric needs of this population, the nature of its disorders and the variety of interventions, it sets out the characteristics of a model service dealing with its structure, location, personnel and resources. The report provides a draft standard specification that can inform negotiations between service commissioners, clinicians and general managers of mental health services. While it focuses on the psychiatric element, it recognises that such a service must be multidisciplinary and multiagency and therefore must be seen within the wider range of services supporting mental health. These include education, social services, community child health and other agencies. The report is aimed at anyone involved in planning or helping to develop a psychiatric service for children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities.
This report deals with services for a population that is still relatively neglected: those falling between child and adolescent psychiatry and learning disability psychiatry. It reviews the resources required for a psychiatric service to young people under 18, and their families. Starting with an overview of the changing approaches to the psychiatric needs of this population, the nature of its disorders and the variety of interventions, it sets out the characteristics of a model service dealing with its structure, location, personnel and resources. The report provides a draft standard specification that can inform negotiations between service commissioners, clinicians and general managers of mental health services. While it focuses on the psychiatric element, it recognises that such a service must be multidisciplinary and multiagency and therefore must be seen within the wider range of services supporting mental health. These include education, social services, community child health and other agencies. The report is aimed at anyone involved in planning or helping to develop a psychiatric service for children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities.
Subject terms:
learning disabilities, mental health services, psychiatry, social care provision, young people, children, commissioning;
This book considers the evolution of mental health services over the past three decades to meet the needs of people with intellectual disability, from early deinstitutionalisation plans to the implementation of community care 25 years later. It focuses on the ways that theories and policies have been applied to clinical practice, and examines the shortcomings of the services provided. The authors and international contributors, all with longstanding expertise in the fields of mental health and intellectual disability, present the strategies and solutions for a for the wide array of interdisciplinary professionals using current evidence-based practice as how people with intellectual disability can be best cared for in clinical settings. Chapters cover topics including: the association between psychopathology and intellectual disability; international perspectives; neuroimaging and genetic syndromes; training professionals, families and support workers.
This book considers the evolution of mental health services over the past three decades to meet the needs of people with intellectual disability, from early deinstitutionalisation plans to the implementation of community care 25 years later. It focuses on the ways that theories and policies have been applied to clinical practice, and examines the shortcomings of the services provided. The authors and international contributors, all with longstanding expertise in the fields of mental health and intellectual disability, present the strategies and solutions for a for the wide array of interdisciplinary professionals using current evidence-based practice as how people with intellectual disability can be best cared for in clinical settings. Chapters cover topics including: the association between psychopathology and intellectual disability; international perspectives; neuroimaging and genetic syndromes; training professionals, families and support workers.
Subject terms:
learning disabilities, mental health services, multidisciplinary services, adults, community care, deinstitutionalisation, evidence-based practice;
This is the 14th report on the development of services for people with learning disabilities or mental illness in England, and highlights developments since 2003. It covers legislation, including the Mental Health Act 2007, secure services, access to psychological therapies, personality disorder, stigma and discrimination, inequalities, services for asylum seekers and refugees, the Care Programme Approach, suicide prevention, the workforce, funding, learning disabilities, and the Valuing Employment Now strategy.
This is the 14th report on the development of services for people with learning disabilities or mental illness in England, and highlights developments since 2003. It covers legislation, including the Mental Health Act 2007, secure services, access to psychological therapies, personality disorder, stigma and discrimination, inequalities, services for asylum seekers and refugees, the Care Programme Approach, suicide prevention, the workforce, funding, learning disabilities, and the Valuing Employment Now strategy.
Subject terms:
learning disabilities, learning disabilities services, mental health law, mental health problems, mental health services, monitoring;
Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 7(2), Autumn 2010, pp.120-129.
Publisher:
South West Yorkshire Mental Health NHS Trust and University of Huddersfield
Recent policy documents have proposed that people with learning disabilities should be more fully included in generic mental health care provision. Such services now include the government’s ‘Improving Access to Psychological Therapies’ (IAPT) initiative which focuses particularly on the provision of support to people suffering from anxiety and depression. This article reports on a training session delivered to IAPT practitioners based at a university in the south of England by a service user with learning disabilities who had accessed mental health services (one of the authors), together with a clinical psychologist and an honorary assistant psychologist. The practitioners were involved in the provision of time-limited psychological intervention, based on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) principles. Four key questions were considered: what is learning disability; what emotional difficulties might they experience in particular; how can CBT be adapted to meet their needs; what information is available about people with learning disabilities and employment? Among the 32 practitioners who attended the training day, 56% had worked with them in a professional context. The practitioners completed pre and post evaluation forms in which they were asked to rate their knowledge about and confidence in working with people with learning disabilities. Following the training participants rated themselves as having significantly greater knowledge and confidence. Many of the qualitative reasons given for these changes mentioned the contribution of the service user. Observations from the facilitators are also presented. It is concluded that joint training needs to be developed and its impact further researched.
Recent policy documents have proposed that people with learning disabilities should be more fully included in generic mental health care provision. Such services now include the government’s ‘Improving Access to Psychological Therapies’ (IAPT) initiative which focuses particularly on the provision of support to people suffering from anxiety and depression. This article reports on a training session delivered to IAPT practitioners based at a university in the south of England by a service user with learning disabilities who had accessed mental health services (one of the authors), together with a clinical psychologist and an honorary assistant psychologist. The practitioners were involved in the provision of time-limited psychological intervention, based on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) principles. Four key questions were considered: what is learning disability; what emotional difficulties might they experience in particular; how can CBT be adapted to meet their needs; what information is available about people with learning disabilities and employment? Among the 32 practitioners who attended the training day, 56% had worked with them in a professional context. The practitioners completed pre and post evaluation forms in which they were asked to rate their knowledge about and confidence in working with people with learning disabilities. Following the training participants rated themselves as having significantly greater knowledge and confidence. Many of the qualitative reasons given for these changes mentioned the contribution of the service user. Observations from the facilitators are also presented. It is concluded that joint training needs to be developed and its impact further researched.
Subject terms:
joint working, learning disabilities, mental health services, psychotherapy, service users, training, user participation, behaviour therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy;