Recent reports on the response of the NHS in England to the health needs of people with learning disabilites have uncovered poor practice and a lack of knowledge and skills (see for example Mencap Getting it Right campaign) We posted earlier in the week about the impact of liaison nursing, one response of the health [read the full story…]
Choice is one of the four fundamental principles of Valuing People, the white paper produced in 2001 to guide development of support for people with learning disabilities in England. This US study looks at this principle in practice using data from the 2008–2009 National Core Indicators Project. They looked at the impact of a number [read the full story…]
Involving people with learning disabilities in research that affects them is part of the tradition of engaging with communities to ensure that there is ‘nothing about us without us’ – a key plank of the valuing people strategy in the UK. This U.S. study set out to consider how academics understand the best way to [read the full story…]
We have posted before about inclusive research projects, including the work of MyLife My Choice looking at annual health checks and work to involve and engage people in secure settings in research findings. The authors of this study worked with people involved in research about how they support each other. They were looking at a [read the full story…]
Shared decision making with family carers is clearly espoused in policy in the UK and elsewhere. The researchers in this U.S. study were interested to look at to what extent parents of children with autism spectrum disorder reported being engaged in such shared decision making. They set out to look at the association between shared [read the full story…]
People with learning disabilities have faced a range of barriers when attempting to negotiate the legal system. Public law is complicated but this new guide hopes to provide clear, accurate advice in a range of areas, The guide, called ‘Know Your Rights’ has been broken down into six main themes: Housing Social and Health Care [read the full story…]
We have posted previously about the use of active support which involves training staff in working practices and organisational procedures to improve levels of participation and increase levels of engagement in activities. The purpose of the current study however was to look at the impact of active support approaches on other outcome measures. The researchers [read the full story…]
In the UK as a whole the most recent estimate from an Action for Advocacy survey is that 55.4% of advocacy organisations provide services for people with learning disabilities, although there is growing concern about the precarious nature of funding for many of those services. The IHAL report points to the argument that the development [read the full story…]
We posted last week about the challenges faced by people with learning disabilities and diabetes. This New Zealand study looked at the additional challenges associated with self-management, which for people who do not have learning disabilities is encouraged. As the authors point out, this requires understanding of the disease and the implications of the actions [read the full story…]
Whilst there has been an increasing interest in developing measures of quality of life for people with learning disabilities, there has been little research looking specifically at the experiences of women with learning disabilities aged 40 years or older. This study set out to look at this specific group and to do this, worked with [read the full story…]
