This study looked at the responses of paid carers to incidents of challenging behaviour. The author was interested in the potential inconsistency of responses. Studies of responses to challenging behaviour have used stimuli that might generate different responses from carers to those that might be generated by actual instances of behaviour of real people. To [read the full story…]
Stress associated with working to support people with learning disabilities has been reported as a factor in staff burnout. This review of literature aimed to investigate whether there was a relationship between organisational climate and staff burnout. The search identified 21 articles which were included in the review. These were separated into two categories. The [read the full story…]
Protection of vulnerable adults has received increasing attention in recent years. This study set out to identify the views of support staff about what vulnerability means and how this might impact on their practice. The author used data from a previous study in which support staff views had been explored. The author used semi-structured interviews [read the full story…]
A number of recent inquiries have highlighted the concern that people with learning disabilities may on occasion be denied access to their basic human rights. The authors of this study set out to explore this concern in relation to approaches to risk management taken in services, which they suggest may focus too much on professional [read the full story…]
How staff supporting children with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour is clearly of major importance. This Scottish study set out to look at the knowledge that teaching staff had regarding definitions of and management of challenging behaviour displayed by children with learning disability. They found that the levels of knowledge amongst staff levels were relatively [read the full story…]
The authors of this study set out to look into the issue of behaviour associated with pain in people with learning disabilities being misinterpreted as reflecting psychopathology. The authors worked with caregivers of 123 children and young people to examine whether psychopathology altered pain behaviour. They asked the caregivers to complete a checklist, the ‘Non-Communicating [read the full story…]
This study from the Netherlands looked at the perspectives of staff to substance use and misuse among people with learning disabilities. The authors point out that the use of psychoactive substances is a growing problem among clients of learning disability services in the Netherlands. However, there are few official statistics and rates of use are [read the full story…]
Challenging behaviour in people with learning disabilities often puts the safety of the person or others around them in jeopardy and can have an impact on the person’s quality of life. The authors of this study set out to explore the relationship between the way in which staff perceive challenging behaviour and staff burnout. They [read the full story…]
National policy in the UK surrounding the support of people with learning disabilities stresses the autonomy of people in receipt of support and the need for those who support them to maximise this. However, support workers also have a duty of care and can find these two policy objectives in conflict with each other. The [read the full story…]
The researcher in this study set out to explore the differences in perspectives that exist between parents with learning disabilities and the professionals employed to support them. Parents with disabilities may report having little say in the nature of the support they receive and may feel as though they are being coerced into accepting whatever [read the full story…]
