Therapeutic alliance important to help people at risk of suicide

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Charlotte Huggett summarises a naturalistic outpatient study which explores the impact that therapeutic alliance and negative responses from clinicians can have on suicidal ideation in people in therapy.

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The moral and emotional labour of care workers in residential homes

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Jill Manthorpe discusses a case study on how the emotional and moral labour of care workers operates in residential settings.

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Mood and emotions in people with severe and profound learning disabilities distinguished using behavioural observations

We need to be alert to the possibility of abuse considering this as a potential trigger for psychological distress and behavioural change

Background Understanding the communication of people with profound learning and multiple disabilities provides a daily challenge to those supporting them. There are a number of guides and aids available to support this process, such as those developed through Mencap’s Involve Me project We recently posted the results of a small study looking at the relationship [read the full story…]

Measuring physiological changes can help validate emotional states of people with profound learning disabilities

PMLD

The recent publication of Raising Our Sights, the DH report into support for people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities set out a challenge for everyone concerned with understanding and responding to people with such disabilities. A number of projects have produced practical guides for involving and engaging with people, for example, Mencap’s Involve Me [read the full story…]

Relationships identified between emotions, attributions and interpersonal style of staff supporting people with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour

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There have been a number of studies testing attributions of support staff and their impact on helping behaviour when supporting people with learning disabilities anf challenging behaviour. We posted about one such study in January this year which looked at the impact of using vignettes to measure helping behaviour and used Weiner’s theory to explain [read the full story…]

Heart rate and skin temperature offer insights into emotions of people with profound learning disabilities

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The late Jim Mansell recently identified the need for all of us supporting people with profound learning disabilities to ‘raise our sights’ in ensuring better quality support and subsequently better outcomes requires a significant amount of skill  (see Raising our Sights)  Projects like Mencap’s Involve Me offer a range of resources aiming to break down [read the full story…]