This Scottish study set out to review the evidence on support for spirituality for people with learning disabilities, an area the author describes as relevant but neglected as a topic and rarely addressed by healthcare professionals. The author met with a wide range of stakeholders including people with disabilities, local faith groups, service managers, parents [read the full story…]
Actively involving students with learning disabilities provides an effective check on policy implementation and quality
Given the emphasis in education on inclusion in mainstream schools and colleges for young people with additional needs, this project set out to enable young people with learning difficulties in three localities to bring about changes in their schools and colleges. The young people themselves chose the areas they wanted to focus on, which were: [read the full story…]
Evaluation of adapted sex offender treatment programme in secure learning disability service finds evidence of positive outcomes
The Adapted Sex Offender treatment Programme (ASOTP) was piloted in a secure learning disability service. This study set out to evaluate its effectiveness and respond to the criticisms and concerns of conventional closed format programmes. The researchers set out to gather the views of a variety of stakeholders (purchasers, clients, clinicians, group facilitators and clients’ [read the full story…]
Benefits of participative research in medium secure settings
This study set out to understand whether recent approaches to informing people with learning disabilities about the findings of research ((e.g. simplified information sheets, reading out information etc) are effective and to discover what people with learning disabilities understand about research. The researchers invited seven men and ten staff members to work as co-researchers with [read the full story…]
Collaborative approaches ensure mental health projects based on needs
This paper describes the need for transparent and honest relationships with stakeholders in the process of reproviding a service. It highlights the role of audit and monitoring quality to determine the ‘health’ and effectiveness of services. Having a collaborative approach to addressing problems means that involvement is impolitic so stakeholders can offer feedback based on [read the full story…]