Search results for ‘Subject term:"severe learning disabilities"’ Sort:
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Friendship and adults with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities and English disability policy
- Authors:
- HUGHES Rachel Parry, REDLEY Marcus, RING Howard
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 8(3), September 2011, pp.197-206.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Recent policy documents in England give great prominence to friendship and frame it explicitly as a force for good in the lives of adults with profound disabilities. The language used in these policy documents signals the tensions and complexities entailed in the idea of friendship with adults with profound disabilities. This article suggests that the failure to address these tensions and complexities is a recipe for failure in the implementation of policy recommendations. It notes the need for policy in this area to be reconsidered and suggest that this process should be informed by both empirical research and conceptual analysis. The article is divided into five sections. Part one describes the development of an earlier policy agenda, that of “citizenship and rights”. Part two suggests that friendship could remedy existing failures and establish the social and moral standing of adults with profound disabilities. Part three summarises sociological and philosophical research on friendship in order to set out how friendship is understood in England today. Part four describes references to friendship that exist in key policy documents. Finally, part five analyses these policy references.
Care school
- Author:
- JEYARAJAH-DENT Renuka
- Journal article citation:
- Community Care, 23.03.06, 2006, pp.36-37.
- Publisher:
- Reed Business Information
Children who communicate poorly or who cannot speak are at particular risk of neglect in residential schools. The author explains how simple procedures and communication practices embedded into the culture of residential schools can maintain a safe and healthy living environment for children and young people with complex learning difficulties.
Living safer sexual lives: research and action
- Authors:
- JOHNSON Kelley, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Tizard Learning Disability Review, 7(3), July 2002, pp.4-9.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
Reports on a three-year Australian action research project which sought to address how people with learning disabilities view issues of sexuality and personal relationships. During the project 25 people with learning disabilities told their life stories, with a focus on sexuality and human relationships, to experienced qualitative researchers. The stories were then used to provide people with learning disabilities, families and service providers with workshops and resources designed to help people with learning disabilities to live safer sexual lives. Outlines the project, the limitations of the methodology and explores how the project made the transition from research into action.
Return to the past?
- Author:
- HUTCHINSON Gunn Strand
- Journal article citation:
- Community Care, 1.8.02, 2002, p.45.
- Publisher:
- Reed Business Information
A decade ago, Norway closed its institutions for people with learning difficulties, preferring to provide community support. Reports how there is now an increasing trend of building sheltered housing in large units and the possible reintroduction of institutions in new forms.
Self directed support and people with learning disabilities: a review of the published research evidence
- Authors:
- HARKES Mary Anne, BROWN Michael, HORSBURGH Dorothy
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 42(2), 2014, pp.87-101.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
A systematic literature review was undertaken to determine the evidence base underpinning the strategy of Self Directed Support and whether evidence demonstrates that this policy is accessible to everyone with a learning disability. It also sought to identify whether there were any barriers to Self Directed Support for people with severe or profound learning disabilities and, if so, how these barriers could be overcome. Four mixed-method research papers, two quantitative studies, seven qualitative studies and four literature reviews were identified. The findings indicated that very few studies pertain specifically to people with learning disabilities, and little account has been taken of their range of ability or the distinction between adults with legal capacity and those without. It is evident from the literature that Self Directed Support is not, as yet, attainable for everyone with a learning disability but those able to access it have reported an improvement in their quality of life. There is a need for further research to determine the extent of awareness and understanding of the policy of Self Directed Support, and the implications it will have on the future care of people with a wide range of learning disabilities. (Edited publisher abstract)
Ten years plus of Total Communication
- Author:
- MILLER Nigel
- Journal article citation:
- Llais, 105, Winter 2012/13, pp.14-16.
- Publisher:
- Learning Disability Wales
The Speech and Language team of the Hywel Dda Local Health Board in Wales worked with services users to develop a Total Communication Strategy which could be implemented across three counties (Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire) in Wales. The strategy aims to improve communication for service users with learning disabilities and communication difficulties. It is now formally recognised as a policy and is provided across all third sector homes, residential homes and tenancies, and social services and health setting. The package, which is briefly described, consists of: Total Communication training; signing training; making information accessible training; and separate training to cover specialist communication needs of services users with profound and multiple disabilities. Within each location there is a designated Total Communication coordinator who takes the role of promoting communication. A website has also been developed for service users.
Valuing Tom: will Valuing People Now change the lives of people with profound and multiple learning disabilities?
- Author:
- VLASKAMP Carla
- Journal article citation:
- Tizard Learning Disability Review, 14(4), October 2009, pp.13-16.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
This short article offers commentary on, and should be read in conjunction with, “Valuing Tom: will Valuing People Now change the lives of people with profound and multiple learning disabilities?” (Dawkins, Tizard Learning Disability Review, October 2009). It asks how we bridge the gap between parents and professionals, and between policy and practice. It examines the lack of data in order to provide proper planning and provision of services, explaining that adults with profound and multiple learning disabilities each have a unique set of circumstances which makes data collection difficult when trying to paint a complete, one-size-fits-all, picture.
Valuing Tom: will Valuing People Now change the lives of people with profound and multiple learning disabilities?
- Author:
- DAWKINS Beverley
- Journal article citation:
- Tizard Learning Disability Review, 14(4), October 2009, pp.3-12.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
This article describes how 60% of parents of children and adults with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) spend more than 10 hours a day on basic physical care, with one third of these parents having a continuous caring role for 24 hours a day, and 78% of families had either no care support, or less than 2 hours per week. Valuing People Now (Department of Health, 2009) recognises that some people, particularly those with complex health needs, have been missing out, and it has made ‘including everyone’ a priority for the next three years. Using Tom's story to illustrate the point, this article considers the reasons why people with PMLD remain among the most marginalised people in society today, what has changed since Valuing People (Department of Health, 2001) and what needs to change in the next three years of delivering Valuing People Now if we are to rise to the challenge of ‘enabling extraordinary people to live ordinary lives’. The article discusses the lack of planning for such people, and the subsequent lack of care provision. The author concludes that since Valuing People Now has acknowledged people with complex needs have been missed out is a real step forward, but that real inclusion will only be achieved by understanding, acknowledging and meeting the specific needs of people with PMLD.
'It's pretty hard with our ones, they can't talk, the more able bodied can participate': staff attitudes about the applicability of disability policies to people with severe and profound intellectual disabilities
- Authors:
- BIGBY C., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 53(4), April 2009, pp.363-376.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The level of resident's adaptive behaviour and staff facilitative practices are key sources of variation in outcomes for residents in community-based residential services. The higher the resident support needs the poorer their outcome. Although substantial investment has been made in values-based training for staff, their attitudes and the impact of these on practice is largely unexplored. The first study used ethnographic and action research methods to examine the daily lives of 25 residents with severe and profound intellectual disabilities (ID), who lived in five small group homes, and the attitudes of the staff supporting them. Thematic analysis of the data led to a proposition that although staff accept principles of inclusion, choice and participation for people with ID in general, they do not consider it feasible to apply these to the people with severe and profound ID to whom they provide support. The findings from a second study that used a group comparison design and administered a short questionnaire about staff attitudes to 144 direct-care staff and first-line managers working in disability services confirmed this hypothesis. The study suggests more focused attention is needed to staff understanding the values embedded in current policies and their application to people with more severe disabilities.
The relationship between life events and psychopathology amongst children with intellectual disabilities
- Authors:
- HATTON Chris, EMERSON Eric
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 17(1), June 2004, pp.109-117.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Research has established a clear relationship between life events and psychopathology amongst children generally, but this relationship has not been investigated in children with intellectual disabilities. A secondary analysis of data collected by the 1999 ONS survey of the Mental Health of Children and Adolescents in Great Britain, investigating associations between adverse life events and psychopathology amongst 264 children with intellectual disabilities and 10 040 children without intellectual disabilities. Children with intellectual disabilities were more likely to experience a greater number and range of adverse life events than children without intellectual disabilities, a difference partly accounted for by family poverty. For children with and without intellectual disabilities, there were robust associations between several life events and child psychiatric disorders, most strongly emotional disorder. There also appeared to be a cumulative effect of life events on the psychopathology of children with intellectual disabilities. Adverse life events play an important role in the psychopathology of children with intellectual disabilities and require further research attention. Policy interventions to reduce family poverty may have an indirect effect upon child psychopathology.