Call for culturally sensitive services for people with learning disabilities from South Asian communities

group silhouette

People from ethnic minorities in the UK are likely to face inequalities, discrimination and disadvantage. From the late 1990s, studies began to document examples of racist attitudes being shown towards South Asian children with learning disabilities, There were also suggestions that South Asian parents received later diagnosis of learning disability in their child, with the [read the full story…]

People with learning disabilities need more emotional and practical support to make and keep friendships

Friends1

Friendships and relationships are usually the things that most people will say are important to them in describing their quality of life. Many people with learning disabilities however have very limited opportunities to meet and make friends. The people in their social networks may be family members, or people who are paid to support them. [read the full story…]

People with learning disabilities identify key ethical issues with use of assistive technology and telecare

Think

In 2010, the Scottish Government’s National Telecare Development Programme published a report on telecare and people with learning disabilities. The authors defined telecare as “the use of equipment within and outwith the home to monitor changing needs and risks, and to provide alerts and information that enable improved and informed responses to those needs and [read the full story…]

Norwegian study suggests users of senior centres would welcome inclusion of older people with learning disabilities

our voice

Inclusion sits at the heart of policy relating to the support of people with learning disabilities. This Norwegian study set out to look at some practical implications of this in relation to providing support to older people with learning disabilities, in particular the views and attitudes of people using ‘senior centres’ in Norway to the [read the full story…]

Retirement planning for people with learning disabilities appears at odds with personalisation and inclusion

Planning

This Australian study set out to explore the issues relating to retirement for older employees with learning disabilities in supported employment services. The researchers discussed retirement in 6 separate focus group interviews, with staff from disability accommodation and employment services, members of mainstream activity programmes for older people, family members of people with disabilities and [read the full story…]

Service user consultation strengthens challenging behaviour strategy

Agree

A key component in any strategic service development is the consultation to seek the views of service users. This can prove problematic when consulting with people with learning disabilities, but a group of researchers in Worcestershire set out to do this in preparing a local challenging behaviour strategy They identified people to be involved in [read the full story…]

Focus group study of involvement of people with learning disabilities finds feelings of unfairness and inequality.

chat after meeting

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…]