Learning disabilities

Design/methodology/approach – The approach is to discuss current guidance and practice, and to offer academic criticism and explanation.

This article examines some of the areas covered by a review of the Fatal Accident Inquiry System in Scotland. The review followed the death of Roderick Donnett, a man with Down's syndrome who died whilst living in a care home. The article focuses specifically on key issue for families and carers as well as people with learning disabilities.

Aims.  This paper reports the findings of a national study of the variations in the provision and correlates of respite breaks to families.

Background.  Internationally, respite breaks are a major support service to family carers, demand for which often exceeds supply for persons with an intellectual disability. Hence, the length of breaks available to families has to be rationed. Nurses are often involved in such decisions.

This article reports the findings of a literature review of research that has explored the support experiences of family carers of a person with an intellectual disability who displays challenging behaviour and/or has a mental health problem. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the reported experiences of family carers from recent research studies, about their own support. Having discussed the search strategy, definitions of challenging behaviour and mental health/illness are presented.

Diagnosis plays a significant role in the shaping of individual identities and the quality of life for people with learning difficulties and their family carers. Diagnostic labels are constitutive of peoples' lives, in that they bring forth pathology, create problemsaturated stories and construct careers as patients and cases. Disabled identities of people with learning difficulties remain largely ‘embodied’ and within the definitional control of professionals.

The NHS Plan, Department of Health (2000) made a commitment that patients should be able to receive copies of clinicians’ letters about them as a right in order to improve communication and enable patients to participate in their care. In South Gloucestershire, the opinions of local service users with learning disabilities, their carers, and professionals working within learning disability services about this issue were sought using questionnaires and focus groups in order to identify and then develop good practice.

The White Paper Valuing People said the aim for people with learning disability should be choice of where and how you live. This is rarely the experience to date. A publication has been written for family carers, social workers and others who want to find out more about the various housing and support options for people with learning disabilities. It explains the choices, how to go about getting housing and what support people can find. Six individuals and their families allowed us to describe their different ways of creating housing and support arrangements.

Background  This study was designed to test the hypothesis that carer attributions for aggressive behaviour vary according to a service user's severity of intellectual disability.