People with mental health problems talk about poverty

shutterstock_169926890

Ian Cummins adds to current political debates about poverty and social justice as he explores Canadian research on the topic that captured the experiences and views of people with mental health problems who actually live in poverty.

[read the full story...]

‘More time for what’? Leisure, life and learning disabilities

shutterstock_96294863

Hannah Morgan from the Centre for Disability Research at Lancaster University takes a critical look at a Swedish study on leisure and people with learning disabilities and discusses what the findings mean for the UK context.

[read the full story...]

What works for whom in support planning by ULOs?

shutterstock_82241563

Gerry Bennison explores a study on support planning by user led organisations and wonders about the implications for personalisation and equality of access to social care and support.

[read the full story...]

Extra care housing vs nursing homes for disabled older people

shutterstock_131982278

In her exploration of a Canadian study into extra care housing for older disabled people, Jo Moriatry gives a critical view of the research and offers some insights into what it means for the UK policy and practice context.

[read the full story...]

Community treatment orders and the limits of freedom

Erstwhile Mental Elf blogger, Ian Cummins, Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Salford University, joins the Social Care Elf to examine a study on the perspectives of service users, psychiatrists and carers on community treatment orders.

[read the full story...]

Carers policy and practice: What about ‘former carers’?

shutterstock_153888044

In her debut blog, Mary Larkin, Senior Lecturer in Health and Social Care at the Open University, examines a piece of qualitative research exploring the experiences of former carers and discusses what it might mean for policy and practice.

[read the full story...]

Advance care planning for people with advanced dementia

It's important that practitioners don't let dementia get in the way of other health problems, such as depression or anxiety. 

Clarissa Giebel, Researcher and PhD student at the University of Manchester, writes her debut Elf blog on a qualitative study about the experiences of advance care planning amongst family caregivers of people with advanced dementia.

[read the full story...]

Measure of confidence in providing psychological therapies for people with learning disabilities could help with outcome measurement

positive_shutterstock_139330709

We report on a recent study, which involved developing a measure of confidence in delivering psychotherapy for people with learning disabilities.

[read the full story...]

Health Professionals’ views on care pathways for adults with learning disabilities

pieces_shutterstock_155609561 (2)

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…]

Women with learning disabilities describe negative experiences of sex and sexuality

Womens_Group

A short while ago, we posted about the development of a tool to help understand the sexual knowledge of people with learning disabilities which was piloted in a secure services setting. There is a growing literature which focuses on issues of abuse, contraception or sex education, but there is little which has looked at how [read the full story…]