Researchers in this Canadian study looked at the factors associated with the use of psychiatric emergency services by people with learning disabilities who were living with their family. They conducted an audit of hospital chart audits for a sample of 20 such individuals with learning disabilities who had visited the emergency department (ED) at the [read the full story…]
Estimates of the numbers of people with learning disabilities who have co-morbid mental health problems vary considerably between studies, from 14 to 39%. This review of literature focused on families of individuals diagnosed with both learning disability and co-morbid mental health problems. The author looked at the impact of caring such individuals on things like [read the full story…]
This National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) report highlights the challenges in supporting and encouraging change to private sector learning disability hospitals. The project ran for 18 months and set out to encourage private sector providers to change their services to reflect national policy as set out in the Mansell report. This included reducing the [read the full story…]
Researchers in this Australian study were concerned to consider the issue of planning for future care and support of people with learning disabilities after the death of parental caregivers. They were considered the need to adapt support systems to ensure the best possible quality of life for people with intellectual disability as they grow older. [read the full story…]
There continues to be some debate about the numbers of people with learning disabilities in UK prisons, partly due to the lack of consensus on definitions of learning disability in studies and different approaches to establishing the boundaries between learning difficulty, borderline learning disability and learning disability. The Bradley report recommended amongst its key recommendations [read the full story…]
Improving Health and Lives (IHaL) is the Learning Disabilities Public Health Observatory: a three year project funded by the Department of Health in response to Sir Jonathan Michael’s 2008 inquiry into access to healthcare for people with learning disabilities. The national observatory aims to provide better, easier to understand information on the health and wellbeing [read the full story…]
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…]
Active Support concerns training staff in working practices and organisational procedures in homes to help provide direct support for resident participation and increase levels of engagement in activities. The researchers in this study looked at the effect of staffing levels, e.g. either one or two staff on the amount of assistance provided to people with [read the full story…]
Researchers in Canada working with people with learning disabilities and mental health problems set out in this study to understand what happens when such individuals experience a psychiatric emergency. They looked at the experience of those people living with their families when such emergencies occurred, to consider what additional services families might need, including going [read the full story…]
This long term study looked at the effectiveness of a preventive programme on dental health in people with Down syndrome, who are known to have increased prevalence of periodontal disease (affecting the neck and root of a tooth) The researchers looked at the long-term effect of periodic plaque control on the progression of periodontal diseases [read the full story…]
