People with learning disabilities in the criminal justice system lacked support, information and faced social isolation

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Whilst estimates of the numbers of people with learning disabilities in the criminal justice system are unreliable because of definitional confusions, there is a recognition that their experience can be confusing and isolating.

Here Sian Anderson looks at a review of published studies which represented the voices of people with learning disabilities themselves to help understand just how they experience the criminal justice system.

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Coproduction of secure mental health services: design, development and delivery

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Sarah Carr summarises a study of user involvement and coproduction initiatives in secure mental health settings, which recommends schemes that build alliances, garner mutual respect and support communication between staff and service users in shared forums.

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How do health and social care leaders respond to user involvement?

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Service user researcher and consultant, Gerry Bennison presents his first Social Care Elf blog. In it he critically discusses the findings of a study looking at how leaders in health and social care are responding to service user involvement.

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The impact of PPI on service users, researchers and communities

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Sarah Knowles and Ailsa Donnelly consider the findings on a systematic review which seeks to map the impact of patient and public involvement (PPI) on health and social care research.

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National event for people with learning disabilities provides clear proposals for inclusion and development

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Earlier this year, a national event organised by and for people with learning disabilities looked at the closure of long stay institutions. Here we reflect on the proceedings and the positive and constructive proposals that emerged.

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Involve service users in design and delivery of services for better outcomes, advises new report

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This new report, from National Voices and Think Local Act Personal, considers what matters most to mental health service users in terms of their experience and outcomes.  The report accompanies an earlier publication which considers evidence from research and consultations on what patients and service users want and expect from support which is person-centred and coordinated. “No [read the full story…]

Empowering mental health service users to become more involved in decisions about their care: the DECIDE RCT

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Laurence Palfreyman highlights an RCT of the DECIDE intervention, which aims to build awareness of the service user’s role in decisions about their care including how they can become more involved and seek information from independent sources.

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Guidance to improve service user experience: how NICE is that?

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Lucy Simons and Paul Radin summarise the latest Evidence Update from NICE relating to their 2011 guidance to improve service user experience

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Service user perspectives on individual CBT for psychosis

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I have been procrastinating about writing this blog for a while. This is, in part, caused by hesitancy about involving myself in the CBT for psychosis (CBTp) debate. Regular readers of the Mental Elf will be aware that in recent months Jauhar and colleagues presented results of a meta-analysis that called into question the effectiveness [read the full story…]

Experience of involvement of people with learning disabilities in staff recruitment

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Background When asked to consider what makes life good for us, we might often think about the central place of choice – the choice of what we wear, what we eat, how we spend our time, the work we do – all these things will be part of our identity. If we need support, then [read the full story…]