Pregnancy and childbirth outcomes in women with intellectual disabilities between 1970 and 1989

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Michelle Gregory looks at an analysis of an archival dataset, which wet out to investigate differences in pregnancy and childbirth outcomes for mothers with and without learning disabilities.

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Parents with learning disabilities: Solicitors critical of assumptions and prejudice in the system

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Parents with learning disabilities face significantly increased risks of being involved in care proceedings. In this blog, Sian Anderson looks at some research, which sought the views of a small group of solicitors involved in care proceedings, to find out what they thought of the way in which the system and the professionals involved in it responded to parents with learning disabilities in care proceedings.

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Promoting social support and parenting skills in parents with an intellectual disability

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Research has documented negative attitudes to parents with learning disabilities and highlighted the need for supports.

Here Kate van Dooren looks at a review of literature exploring support interventions for parents with learning disabilities.

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Can staff mindset encourage a positive working alliance with parents with mild learning disabilities and encourage them to seek help sooner?

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Parents with learning disabilities face numerous difficulties as we have reported elsewhere, but how much does the mindset of the staff supporting them impact on the quality of working alliances and the speed at which parents seek help?
Here in her debut blog, Fawn Harrad looks at a study that involved both parents and their support staff to look at these issues.

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Advocacy support for parents with learning disabilities – is it cost effective?

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Around 7% of people with learning disabilities are parents, but they face significantly increased risks of being involved in care proceedings being more likely than other parents to lose the care of their children.

Here, in her Debut blog, Katherine Runswick-Cole looks at a study of the potential economic case for the provision of advocacy interventions to support parents with learning disabilities.

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Experiences of magistrates making decisions in care proceedings involving parents with learning disabilities

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The combination of family support and responsive services has been identified as critical to the development of a positive parenting context parents with learning disabilities. But the current evidence suggests that such parents are still likely to have their children permanently removed from their care. A recent Australian study suggested that for some learning disabled [read the full story…]

Positive public attitudes found in Irish survey to the expression of sexuality in people with learning disabilities

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Supporting adults with learning disabilities to express their sexuality and form intimate relationships is an area that continues to challenge provider organisations. One of the factors that impacts on this is public attitudes. This study reports on the findings of the attitudes of the general public in Ireland. The researchers looked at the data from [read the full story…]

Pregnancy Support Pack can support better interactions between parents with learning disabilities and maternity services

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Access to information about pregnancy is crucial for parents to be. For people with learning disabilities, faced with a variety of new choices to make, this is especially true. However, there is little information currently available about pregnancy for people with learning disabilities. As the number of women with learning disabilities becoming pregnant increases, it [read the full story…]

Increasing demand for speech therapy for parents with learning disabilities

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We have posted previously about the evidence relating to support for parents with learning disabilities , with studies suggesting that whilst parents with learning disabilities may experience poorer psychological well-being than parents in the general population, there is evidence that improvements in psychological well-being can be made through improvements in social support. The researcher in [read the full story…]

Mothers with learning disabilities develop personal narratives to explain experiences of when children taken into care

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We have posted previously on these pages about the barriers that people with learning disabilities face as parents. We have also though pointed to the evidence that suggests that timely and appropriate support can help parents to provide a loving environment for their child. The authors of this Australian study point out that mothers with [read the full story…]