Search results for ‘Subject term:"learning disabilities"’ Sort:
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Implementation of 'improving the life chances of disabled people': Age Concern's response
- Author:
- AGE CONCERN
- Publisher:
- Age Concern
- Publication year:
- 2005
- Pagination:
- 5p.
- Place of publication:
- London
'Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People' states that, by 2025, disabled people should have full opportunities and choices to improve their quality of life and be respected and included as equal members of society.
'Quality of life' and medical decision making for adults with profound and multiple learning disabilities
- Author:
- MENCAP
- Publisher:
- Mencap
- Publication year:
- 2005
- Pagination:
- 13p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
People with profound and multiple learning disabilities must have the same entitlement to medical treatment as anyone else. The existence of a learning disability does not justify different standards of medical treatment. If quality of life criteria are relevant they should be applied to a person with a learning disability in the same manner as to a person without a disability. People may value and enjoy living a life we would not choose for ourselves. Considerations of ‘quality of life’ are only relevant in the context of the gravity of illness and do not concern the degree or nature of a person’s disability.
Adults with learning difficulties in England 2003/4: full report
- Authors:
- EMERSON Eric, et al
- Publisher:
- National Health Service. Information Centre for Health and Social Care
- Publication year:
- 2005
- Pagination:
- 129p.
- Place of publication:
- Leeds
This is the report of the first national survey of adults with learning disabilities in England. It tells us how much more needs to be done if people with learning difficulties are to be more included and have a better life.
Adults with learning difficulties in England 2003/4: summary report
- Editors:
- EMERSON Eric, et al, (eds.)
- Publisher:
- National Health Service. Information Centre for Health and Social Care
- Publication year:
- 2005
- Pagination:
- 24p.
- Place of publication:
- Leeds
An easy read summary of the first national survey of adults with learning disabilities in England. It tells us how much more needs to be done if people with learning difficulties are to be more included and have a better life.
Modern times: an ethnographic study on the quality of life of people with a high support need in a Flemish residential facility
- Authors:
- de WAELE Isabel, Van HOVE Geert
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Society, 20(6), October 2005, pp.625-639.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This ethnographic study shows the impact of the care system on clients’ and staff’s life experiences, with the clear distance between these two groups as one of the core issues. Together with a dominant care approach and a well established but subtile system of control, it makes them function in systems that are characterized by an oppressing care culture. Learned helplessness prevents both groups of acting upon quality of life outcomes. The idea of supporting a life of good quality through merely improving these traditional care systems should therefore be considered with caution, and real alternatives should be considered to open this barrier of the oppressing care culture.
Human rights - disability - children: towards international instruments for disability rights: the special case of disabled children: proceedings of the conference: 8-9 November 2004, Council of Europe, Strasbourg
- Author:
- COUNCIL OF EUROPE
- Publisher:
- Council of Europe
- Publication year:
- 2005
- Pagination:
- 258p.
- Place of publication:
- Strasbourg
Too many people with disabilities, particularly children, continue to experience isolation, stigma and social exclusion because they live in specialised institutions. The Conference "Human Rights- Disability-Children: towards international instrument for disability rights - the special case of disabled children", organised by the Council o1 Europe in Strasbourg (8-9 November 2004) under its Norwegian Chairmanship, reviewed current Council of Europe instruments to promote and protect the rights of people with disabilities. It focused in particular on the right of children with disabilities to grow up within a family and in a community context. The event, attended by more than 100 participants from 34 Council of Europe member and observer states, clearly showed that strengthening the rights of children with disabilities within a non-discriminatory framework "from patient to citizen" is a pan-European issue. The concrete follow-up of the conference is provided by a multidisciplinary ad hoc group of experts who, in the framework of the forthcoming Council of Europe Action Plan to promote the rights and full participation of people with disabilities in society: improving the quality of life of people with disabilities in Europe (2006 2015), will draw up recommendations and guidelines for the deinstitutionalisation of children with disabilities, promote the policy of community living and support families to care for their disabled children at home.
Striving for the sacred: personal goals, life meaning, and religion
- Author:
- EMMONS Robert A.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Issues, 61(4), December 2005, pp.731-745.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Religion invests human existence with meaning by establishing goals and value systems that potentially pertain to all aspects of a persons' life. A goals approach provides a general unifying framework to capture the dynamic aspect of religion in people's lives. Empirical research on the measurement of spirituality and religion through personal goals is described. To illustrate the application of the goals framework, data from the author's research program on personal goals and quality of life in persons with neuromuscular diseases are described. Framing subjective quality-of-life outcomes in terms of goals can lead to new possibilities for understanding adaptation to physical disabilities and in particular, the understanding of the religious and spiritual dimensions of disability and rehabilitation.
Caregivers as managers of subjective wellbeing: a homeostatic perspective
- Author:
- CUMMINS Robert A.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 18(4), December 2005, pp.335-344.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This paper proposes that the adequacy of service delivery and caregiving to people who are disabled should be assessed using two criteria. One is the objective circumstance of living, which should be at a standard acceptable to the community at large. The other is a level of subjective wellbeing (SWB) within the normal range. This latter criterion is based on an understanding that SWB is homeostatically managed to lie normally within a narrow range of values. Results found that people who have a disability are more likely than usual to have a fragile homeostatic system because of the additional life challenges imposed by their disability. It concludes that the role of a caregiver is to provide resources and protection against strong threats to homeostasis, thereby ensuring that the person in their care has a normal-range level of SWB.
Individual characteristics associated with community integration of adults with intellectual disability
- Authors:
- VINE Xanthe K. L., HAMILTON David I.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 30(3), September 2005, pp.171-175.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This Australian study identified individual characteristics associated with community integration of adults with an intellectual disability. A group of 37 males with high support needs, and who had previously lived in a large institution, participated in the study. Using proxy respondents, data were collected on three measures of community integration, and on the participants' adaptive and maladaptive functioning. Chronological age and years of institutionalisation were also examined for their associations with community integration. Level of daily living skills predicted life circumstances. There were no significant associations among the measures of community integration. The examination of the relationships between participant characteristics and community integration produced similar conclusions to previous research. Only daily living skills scores were uniquely associated with variations in life circumstances. Further research is required to determine whether these findings will be replicated with other cohorts of participants.
An evaluation of specialized community-based residential supports for people with challenging behaviour
- Authors:
- GOLDING Laura, EMERSON Eric, THORNTON Amanda
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 9(2), June 2005, pp.145-154.
- Publisher:
- Sage
- Place of publication:
- London
This study explored the effects of relocation from institutional to specialized community-based residential provision for six men with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviour and for a comparison group of six men with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviour who were already living in specialized community based residential provision. Relocation was associated with: (1) a significant increase in participants’ domestic activity skills; (2) a decrease in the observed occurrence of some problem behaviours; (3) an increase in quality of life; and (4) an increase in engagement and staff contact. The community group, however, also showed some improvements over time, most notably in their levels of engagement in meaningful activity and staff contact. The implications of these results for service provision and suggestions for future research are discussed.