Last week we posted about the publication of a new manual for therapists engaged in providing cognitive behavioural therapy to people with learning disabilities . In that post, we drew attention to two randomised trials that had been done in the early 2000’s whose findings were m anger – encouraging. This latest study adds a [read the full story…]
Five years ago, Lord Bradley published his report looking at the situation of people with mental health problems and people with learning disabilities in the criminal justice system. The Bradley report made a number of recommendations and this summer sees the publication of a progress report on these recommendations. The Bradley commission, established as an [read the full story…]
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is used in mainstream services and the evidence for its effectiveness is growing. For people with learning disabilities, there is a growing evidence base for in relation to psychological interventions more generally, although much of the much of the research on CBT has come from forensic secure units. CBT Randomised controlled [read the full story…]
Stress associated with being the parent of a child with learning disabilities is well documented. Mencap’s Breaking Point campaign has highlighted this very clearly. Their survey of families found more than 9 out of 10 family carers reported high levels of stress with over half of family carers either having given up, or considering giving [read the full story…]
There is evidence that the people with learning disabilities have a higher prevalence of mental health issues than those in the general population. The rate of dementia is higher and people with Down syndrome are at particularly high risk of developing dementia, with a much earlier age of onset. The most recent guide for commissioners [read the full story…]
Autonomy is defined as the freedom to determine one’s own actions or behaviour. It is a value at the heart of health and social care support and those supporting people with learning disabilities are constantly striving to maintain and indeed increase the autonomy of those they provide help to. The authors of this Netherlands based [read the full story…]
A short while ago, the Learning Disabilities Elf made a small contribution to the Justice for LB campaign by trying to draw attention once again to the evidence base. Wednesday (day 91) saw the publication of a key report from the Care Quality Commission and Challenging Behaviour Foundation, which tells the stories of three young [read the full story…]
Difficulties with swallowing can lead to significant risk, from aspiration, dehydration, recurrent chest infections and of course choking risk. Dysphagia, the difficulty in preparation of food in the mouth for swallowing, can have a number of causes, physiological, environmental and behavioural. The consequences of not identifying and then dealing with the issue can clearly have [read the full story…]
The health inequalities of people with learning disabilities are well documented in the literature, with increased risks for many physical and sensory health issues as well as mental health issues and responses from health services have often been poor, as documented in the Michael Report. In recent years, the healthcare pathways approach has been introduced [read the full story…]
During her presidency of the BMA, Professor Sheila Hollins has hosted a number of seminars on issues faced by vulnerable groups in the NHS, one of which looked at the issues facing people with learning disabilities. This report by the BMA Board of Science aims to move towards ‘parity of esteem’, a term which is [read the full story…]
