Tizard News and Events

The University of Kent are holding an autism awareness day on Wednesday 1st April 2015,  as part of World Autism Awareness Week.

Activities will include an autism awareness library exhibition and rainbow spectrum quiz, where you can see how far you reach on our spectrum rainbow.

From 2:30 – 4pm, Imagining Autism will be holding an interactive performance in their immersive environments in Jarman Studio 2 (School of Arts). You can step into their ‘pod’ to discover the sensory environments that can help autistic children, and develop key physical interactions.

All events are hosted by our Students With Disabilities Officer, Jenna Charlton, and aim to raise awareness and support for students on the autistic spectrum.

See: http://www.kentunion.co.uk/ents/event/2334/ for Kent Union activities related to this.

For more information on World Autism Awareness Week, http://www.autism.org.uk/waaw

For information on student support, http://www.kent.ac.uk/studentsupport/index.html

For more information on Imagining Autism, http://www.imaginingautism.org/

Tizard Centre hosted a visit from 12 senior staff from special education departments within schools from the Rogaland Region of Norway. There were staff from six different schools across the region all providing for young people aged 16-20 with intellectual disabilities, autism and some of whom show behaviour that challenges.
On Thursday 19th March Julie Beadle-Brown and Nick Gore ran a workshop at Whitstable Castle focusing on promoting positive outcomes for children and young adults with intellectual disabilities and autism. The session provided our visitors with an introduction to person-centred approaches and in particular  active support, autism friendly practices and positive behavioural support, as well as a rather delicious afternoon tea!   On Friday the group met again with Julie Beadle-Brown to discuss implications of what they had heard on Friday and the next steps for their schools.  Their visit culminated with their attendance at the Jim Mansell Memorial Lecture & Dinner.

This visit is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Tizard Centre and Rogaland Region where both Julie Beadle-Brown and Nick Gore have provided workshops and been providing support to schools in terms of introducing person-centred approaches and in particular thinking about how to better support those young people that show behaviour that challenges.
On 26th March Julie Beadle-Brown will present a workshop on Active Support on the Island of Karmoy in the North of Rogaland.
In May, Julie and Nick will spend a week in one school training staff in active support, the SPELL framework for supporting people with autism and in positive behaviour support as well as working with families and other stakeholders.

The 2015 Jim Mansell Memorial Lecture was held on Friday 20th March with Viv Cooper, OBE, Chief Executive Officer of the Challenging Behaviour Foundation giving the talk “People with learning disabilities whose behaviour challenges”.  The talk proved particularly popular with around 155 people attending.

The lecture was followed by the annual Tizard prize giving to students who have excelled over the last year, namely:

1. Best UG IDD mark awarded to Janice Newby
2. Best Masters mark awarded to Clare Baker
3. Prize for outstanding work and effort awarded to Rebecca Packham
4. Best mark in a Tizard final year module awarded to Emma Richards (studying Mental Health wild module) Emma was unable to attend the ceremony as she is currently studying in Germany.
5. Edward Newell Prize 2015 awarded to Jenny Compton

A short drinks reception was followed by a formal dinner for 100 of the guests attending.  The evening proved to be particularly successful with Kent Hospitality proving a delicious meal and Ben Breen, UG student at the University of Kent, playing the piano during the evening.

The Jigsaw Project (mcch), set up in response to the Living in Fear Research Project (a collaboration between mcch, Tizard Centre and Kent Police) is holding a one day Conference on April 17th 2015, 0930am to 1pm in Maidstone, Kent.

For details email:  Charlotte Cook c.cook@mcch.org.uk

With the Jim Mansell Memorial Lecture being held this Friday 20th March at 1800 hrs, Rutherford College, University of Kent, Emerald Publishing are allowing free access to supporting papers.

Vivien Cooper, OBE, Chief Executive of the Challenging Behaviour Foundation will be giving this year’s talk “People with learning disabilities whose behaviour challenges”

To access these please follow the link: http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/promo/tizard.htm

Dr Rowena Rossiter, Aida Malovic and Prof Glynis Murphy have recently presented workshops on the Keep Safe Research Project at NSPCC’s Conference on young people and sexually harmful behaviour.  The conference “Shaping the Future” proved very popular, no doubt because of the plenary presentations from the world famous Dr David Finkelhor,   USA and Prof Simon Hackett, Durham, UK (far left).

The NICE Guideline Development Group for ‘Learning disabilities and behaviour that challenges’ met for the final time last week.  The guidelines are the first that NICE have completed for people with learning disabilities.  The final touches are currently being made to these in response to 917 comments received from stakeholders over the last few months.  The guidelines will then go to the printers later this week to be formally launched in May of this year.

The group was chaired by Prof  Steve Pilling (UCL) and Prof Glyn Murphy (Tizard) who commented that “the experience had been very interesting”.  They wish to thank all of the group and the NICE staff involved for all their hard work.

Prof Murphy was an invited speaker at the NOTA South East Region annual conference on Autism and the Criminal Justice System, on Tuesday 10th February 2015. The event was also attended by Dr Tania Tancred (psychologist from Kent probation), who  helped organise the conference and has been a long-term collaborator with Prof Murphy, and the two other speakers Andrew Bates (forensic psychologist in Thames Valley Probation service) and Zoe Eastop (from KMPT, who is a Tizard Graduate).

Yesterday’s article in The Guardian looks at the problem of domestic abuse suffered by  women with learning disabilities and links into the recent research carried out by Dr Michelle McCarthy, Reader in Learning Disabilities.

“This is about coercive control and women not being free to live their own lives. These women have the least resources in terms of money and social or emotional support, so they’re going to be more vulnerable to domestic violence.”

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/10/victims-domestic-violence-abuse-women-learning-disabilities

Dr McCarthy will be giving a Seminar looking at the findings of her research project on Wednesday 25th February 2015, 1700-1800hrs at the Kent Business School, University of Kent.  If you wish to come along to this please email J.Ruffels@kent.ac.uk

Taking Mats is a communication symbols tool.  It is based on extensive research and designed by Speech and Language Therapists. It uses unique, specially designed picture communication symbols that are attractive to all ages and communication abilities and is used by clinical practitioners, carers and support workers in a wide range of health, social work, residential and education settings. http://www.talkingmats.com/about-talking-mats/

Six people from Tizard (including research assistants, PhD and Masters students) received their certificates yesterday, having completed their training at Tizard, with accredited trainer Jill Bradshaw.