Background Offering choice to patients is at the heart of the NHS, supported by a set of legal rights (see the Choice Framework) and patient led assessments of care environments have been introduced (PLACE) applying to hospitals, hospices and day treatment centres providing NHS funded care. At present this covers only care environments, not clinical care [read the full story…]
Background Published research in the last few years has shed some light on the experiences of people with learning disabilities in the criminal justice system, with significant evidence emerging of their vulnerability. The authors of this current study however, were interested in the ways in which people might, or might not, become involved in the [read the full story…]
Background The debate about the place of assessment and treatment beds for adults with learning disabilities continues. The Royal College of Psychiatrists recently published a paper as part of the response to the events at Winterbourne View which set out its view of the need for a range of in-patient services which included acute admission [read the full story…]
We have posted previously of the role of attributions in the way support staff respond to challenging behaviour, with studies looking at inconsistencies in responses and the impact of specific attributions on helping behaviour The researchers in this Scottish based study were interested in exploring this further, and in particular looking at the extent to [read the full story…]
A new review by Pieper et al 2013 aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the research on treatments for both pain and challenging behaviour in people with dementia. It hinges around the fact that pain is commonly undertreated because it is not easy to recognise unless there is a diagnosed physical cause, and also because [read the full story…]
Following the signing of the concordat on Winterbourne View, there was a commitment to producing a report on progress against the agreements made by the signatories of that document . This report was published earlier this month and reports the findings from a questionnaire administered to all the 152 health and well-being board areas. The [read the full story…]
Following the publication of the Winterborne View ‘concordat’ December 2012, it was agreed that the College of Social Work, in collaboration with other key groups and organisations, would produce guidance for social workers on good practice in working with people with learning disabilities who also have mental health conditions. The College of Social Work is [read the full story…]
As you know, the Elf service exists to ensure that the best current knowledge is made available to support staff. It is possible to see from our tag cloud that we cover a good deal of material produced that relates to supporting people described as having challenging behaviour. We know that staff skills, competence and [read the full story…]
In February this year, we posted about new summary information sheets produced by the challenging behaviour foundation. This month sees the launch of a new series of three information sheets which look at the causes of challenging behaviour, and explain how to make effective plans to reduce it. The information sheets are designed to provide [read the full story…]
Mindfulness is an approach to life based on an ancient Buddhist practice which means paying attention to the present moment in a non-judgemental manner, which aims to increase awareness, clarity and acceptance. As a number of studies have looked at mindfulness-based interventions the authors of this narrative review set out to look at the clinical [read the full story…]
