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We heard about the abuse and bad treatment of people with intellectual disabilities which had happened at an inpatient unit called Whorlton Hall in 2019.We were upset and angry that abuse keeps happening even though people have been trying to make sure support is better and safer.We wanted to write something to tell people that we thought the abuse was terrible and should not be happening.We hoped that we could write something that would tell people how important it is to:–help people to get better at spotting signs of emotional and physical abuse–report any abuse or poor support and make a plan to follow up to make sure this stops–share ideas of how we can better work together to stop abuse from happeningWe set up a small group of clinical psychologists to write a ‘position statement’ which would include all these things.We shared what we had written with a bigger group of psychologists and health professionals in our Attachment and Intellectual Disabilities Special Interest Group and they said what they thought was good and how to make it better.

The service is providing supported living for a number of people, male and female, age 21 to 55, who all have intellectual disability and a range of extra needs. These include physical disability, communication difficulties, trauma related personality difficulties, self-harming behaviour and aggression towards others. They are all perceived to have emotional developmental needs, all having suffered traumatic experiences in early childhood, causing developmental delay. All have difficulties with relationships associated with attachment disorders. All direct support staff are trained in models of emotional development and how to assess the emotional level, which leads to identifying the needs. Managers of services are alto trained to support the staff to provide the level of support needed, and to understand the systemic effects of trauma so as to be able to provide trauma-informed-care. The training, supervision, support and individual therapy for clients, where needed, is provided by psychologists and psychotherapists trained in Disability Psychotherapy. The comprehensive approach allows people with very complex and distressed behaviour to live in ordinary housing in the community. Data is provided on 10 people, the history, the initial problem behaviour and the present position after being provided with the emotionally nurturing environment.

Purpose – This paper charts the development and practice of disability psychotherapy for the author and for services. Design/methodology/approach – A personal account relating events to the development of thinking and practice. Findings – The author suggests that a paradigm shift has occurred over the 30 years to a position of “doing with” as opposed to “doing to”. Originality/value – This has not previously been put forward as a way of understanding present day services.

Purpose – This paper demonstrates that it is both possible and useful to measure the emotional developmental stage of people with intellectual disability. Design/methodology/approach – A tool was designed, based on a stage theory of development and tested for reliability and validity. Findings – The tool was found to be both reliable and valid. Originality/value – This is new work with no predecessor.

A summer school for seven children provided a therapeutic environment in which emotional needs could be addressed. This approach led to gains in development and reductions in severe behaviour disturbance. The scheme utilised finance from the health authority and the Mental Health Foundation, staff on short-term contracts and a variety of help from existing resources. The combined effort ensured a crisis-free summer and presented evidence of a way of working that is beneficial to some very disturbed children.

This paper summarises the main areas of therapeutic developments in recent years in the field of learning disability. There has been a growing interest in alternative ways of helping learning‐disabled people live with themselves and the world in a socially acceptable way. Most such approaches are person‐centred, even if provided in a group setting. The range and types of therapies are illustrated and the advances in humanistic approaches highlighted. Cognitive, psychodynamic and creative therapies have been added to behaviour therapy, with good results, indicating the potential of learning‐disabled people to benefit from the same sorts of therapy as other people.

Introduction People with intellectual disabilities are now acknowledged to be susceptible to the full range of mental health disorders. This acknowledgement has resulted in the need to develop and evaluate instruments for the assessment and detection of mental health problems. This research evaluates the use of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) with 200 people with mild intellectual disabilities representing community, clinical and forensic populations. Results and conclusions Results illustrate the reliability of the BSI for each of the groups and demonstrates how the Positive Symptom Total (PST) index effectively discriminates between study groups. Case rates for each group are provided. The study illustrates that the BSI could be employed as a brief multitrait assessment instrument and as a treatment outcome measure with people with an intellectual disability.

After a varied and confused period from the days of Freud to the 1980s, psychotherapy for people with disabilities began to be recognised as having value. Several strands of development occurred at the same time and came together in the early 1980s. These strands will be discussed, the way they came together and what has happened since.

A group of clinical psychologists in the Yorkshire Region have met regularly to provide support for each other and to share ideas on ways of working with a very demanding client group, people with mental handicaps who are potentially violent. They decided to put their ideas into the following discussion paper on the benefits of a psychotherapeutic approach. They felt that some guidelines for using this method of treatment would be useful. Comment and discussion is invited from other people doing similar work.

SUMMARY. Many children, particularly those with cerebral palsy, are not able to speak or speak with difficulty. Some, who have no intellectual deficits, are considered to be physically handicapped and, once they have mastered reading, they can take advantage of Possum machines. Those with mental handicap as well as cerebral palsy may be helped to communicate by means of an electronic speaking aide which has simple, specific controls. Young children with physical handicaps only could also benefit from this type of device.

(2001) J Adv Nurs 34, 582. Kearney PM, Griffin T. . Between joy and sorrow: being a parent of a child with developmental disability. . Jun; . : . –92 . [OpenUrl][1][CrossRef][2][PubMed][3][Web of Science][4] QUESTION: What are experiences of parents who have children with significant developmental disability? Hermeneutic phenomenology. Penrith, New South Wales, Australia. 6 parents (2 couples and 2 single mothers) of 4 children (age range 3–6 y, 3 boys and 1 girl) participated in the study. Participants were recruited from the first author's practice experience. An initial series of individual face to face interviews with parents were conducted. Parents were asked to talk about their experiences of living with a child with a developmental disability. The couples completed subsequent joint interviews. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. Transcripts and contextual notes were coded and then indexed against various starting categories. Patterns in the coding system allowed for reconceptualisation of data into fewer and denser categories. Relationships between the categories were developed. Themes, patterns, and relationships were reviewed with participants to check for intent and validation. Parents' experiences were interpreted as dynamic moving between joy and sorrow . Contributing to … [1]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DJournal%2Bof%2Badvanced%2Bnursing%26rft.stitle%253DJ%2BAdv%2BNurs%26rft.aulast%253DKearney%26rft.auinit1%253DP.%2BM.%26rft.volume%253D34%26rft.issue%253D5%26rft.spage%253D582%26rft.epage%253D592%26rft.atitle%253DBetween%2Bjoy%2Band%2Bsorrow%253A%2Bbeing%2Ba%2Bparent%2Bof%2Ba%2Bchild%2Bwith%2Bdevelopmental%2Bdisability.%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1046%252Fj.1365-2648.2001.01787.x%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F11380726%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [2]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.1046/j.1365-2648.2001.01787.x&link_type=DOI [3]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=11380726&link_type=MED&atom=%2Febmental%2F5%2F1%2F29.atom [4]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=000168979700004&link_type=ISI