This study set out to investigate whether the triad of impairments and severe challenging behaviour had an impact on the lifestyle of adults living in staff-supported community housing using data collected on 427 adults living in 146 staffed houses. The authors found that after controlling for adaptive behaviour, there were no significant differences between those with [read the full story…]
This systematic review of prevalence rates of chronic health conditions in children with intellectual disability found 2,994 relevant studies published between 1996 to 2008. 31 studies were included that the authors felt had sufficient methodological quality. They found that the 6 most prevalent chronic health conditions were: Epilepsy (22.0/100), Cerebral palsy (19.8/100), Anxiety disorder (17.1/100), [read the full story…]
This cross-sectional study used interviews with over 1000 adults with learning disabilities within a defined location along with a review of their medical records. Area deprivation was defined by postcode, using Carstairs scores. The authors found that area deprivation had no influence on access to social supports, daytime primary health-care services or hospital admissions. However, [read the full story…]
Physical restraints were found to be in use for nearly 20% of more than 500 adults living in group homes in Sweden in the week preceding the study. 99.2% of these had been subjected to more than one type of restraint. The authors concluded physical restraints are frequently used in Sweden and that physical impairments [read the full story…]
This study reports an online survey that set out to find out more about autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in later life. The survey consisted of an online questionnaire (biographical information, general health, quality of life, score on Autism Quotient [AQ] measure) of adults in their forties, resident in the UK, diagnosed with ASD or who [read the full story…]
The idea of organising activities thematically has been developed in the Netherlands. The expected outcomes of this approach have been suggested as the provision of more activities with greater variety along with more attention offered to each individual person. 23 attendees of one day centre took part in a study of this new approach. The [read the full story…]
This literature review looked at the evidence for environmental causes for challenging behaviours, looking at 173 empirical studies where functional assessment served as the primary method of identifying causes of challenging behaviour. Most studies identified a clear function or functions, most commonly attention, efforts to acquire tangibles, negative reinforcement in the form of escape and [read the full story…]
This study described a 3-phase staff training project designed to increase client engagement in an adult habilitation centre. Phase one developed curriculum guidelines, with phase two being training for paraprofessional staff. The third phase was the implementation of the clinical experience. The authors found that engagement of clients increased with the implementation of systematic instruction [read the full story…]
Effective and meaningful engagement and involvement of people with learning disabilities in the services and support they receive is at the heart of current policy, with considerable effort being put into its promotion. This article looks at the live experience of involvement of people with learning disabilities who use services using a focus group methodology. [read the full story…]
This literature review looked at evaluations of service provision in the UK for people with challenging behaviours, reviewing the literature from 1990 to 2010 looking at studies that evaluated a range of UK service provision in terms of impact on challenging behaviour and other quality of life indices. The author found very few evaluations, although [read the full story…]
