Mindfulness based psychotherapy can be adapted for people with learning disabilities and mental health issues or challenging behaviour

Listening

Mindfulness as described in modern psychology relates to a way of people bringing complete attention to their present experience and involves responding to that experience with a non-judgmental attitude.The authors of this study wanted to review the adaptation and application of mindfulness-based psychotherapeutic practices for people with learning disabilities.

They provide an overview of the adaptation and use of mindfulness practices in the treatment of anxiety and mood disorders and maladaptive behaviours, as well as an exploration of current research related to mindfulness-based stress management for parents and caregivers.

They suggest that the current evidence base and data from practice support mindfulness-based psychotherapeutic practices as clinically effective in the treatment of anxiety, mood, stress, aggression, and self-injury in individuals with learning disabilities  and also supports enhanced coping and stress management in their parents and caregivers.

They conclude that the skills-based practices of mindfulness-based psychotherapy make it easily adaptable and applicable for use with people with learning disabilities who have mental health issues or challenging behaviour. They point out however that at the present time, there is very little in the literature on mindfulness based approaches and recommend that further research in this area be carried out. Keywords

The adaptation and application of mindfulness-based psychotherapeutic practices for individuals with intellectual disabilities, Robertson B, in Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities 5, 5, 46-52

 

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John Northfield

After qualifying as a social worker, John worked in community learning disability teams before getting involved in a number of long-stay hospital closure programmes, working to develop individual plans for people moving into their own homes. He worked for BILD, helping to develop the Quality Network and was editorial lead for the NHS electronic library learning disabilities specialist collection. This led him to found the Learning Disabilities Elf site with Andre Tomlin as a way of making the evidence accessible to practitioners in health and social care. Most recently he has worked as part of Mencap's national quality team and also been involved in a number of national website developments, including the General Medical Council's learning disabilities site.

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