England’s key health and care bodies have today published a report setting out the next steps of a system-wide plan to answer the calls from individuals and their families to overhaul services for people with learning disabilities.
For full details: http://www.england.nhs.uk/2015/01/29/next-steps/
Michelle McCarthy, Reader in Learning Disabilities at the Tizard Centre has just completed an independent research project commissioned and funded by the NIHR, School for Social Care Research. As part of her team’s findings a video has been released to aid those currently suffering abuse.
To watch this: https://vimeo.com/116967832
Michelle will be giving our next Research Seminar, on 25th February 2015 at 1700hrs, discussing the findings of her research project. For full details of this: http://www.kent.ac.uk/tizard/research/seminars/index.html
We were sad to learn of the death of Professor Barbara Tizard on January 4th 2015. She was the wife of Jack Tizard, after whom we are named, and she was very supportive of the Tizard Centre. Her obituary appeared in the Guardian on January 13th 2015, she was herself a psychologist with a special interest in early child development.
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jan/13/barbara-tizard
Dr Michelle McCarthy, Reader in Learning Disabilities, will be presenting her findings following on from her 2 year research project on domestic violence, funded by the NIHR School for Social Care.
The Conference is taking place on the 28th January 2015 at the Institute of Education in London “Domestic abuse and learning difficulties: addressing intimate partner abuse”.
For full details or to book a place: http://www.ccclimited.org.uk/event/domestic-abuse-and-learning-disabilities-addressing-intimate-partner-abuse/
We are delighted to announce that Allan Finn, one of the project advisors on Living in Fear (a big lottery funded project carried out by the Tizard Centre, working in partnership with mcch and Kent Police) has won a citizenship award as part of the 3rd Sector Care Awards in 2014. These awards were launched to celebrate and showcase the innovation and care excellence of the not for profit care sector. The awards aim to reward examples of outstanding achievement and performance in this sector.
Allan was nominated for the award by Colin Guest of mcch for his ongoing commitment to the Jigsaw project which is implementing some of the recommendations of the research carried out in the Medway area. Many congratulations to Allan on his success.
The Living in Fear Project investigated victimisation experiences of people with learning disabilities and autism known as disability hate crime. For more information on the Living in Fear Project: http://www.kent.ac.uk/tizard/research/Current_recent_research.html
Dr Janet Carr, Honorary Senior Researcher at Tizard, is currently finalising the most recent findings of her 50 year old research study with people with Down’s syndrome and their families.
After half a century Janet Carr has just completed the longest running research project. The longitudinal study began with 54 babies born in the year to November 1964 and living with their families in the south-east of England. Driven by an interest in people and behaviours Carr’s aim was to establish the children’s educational needs using intelligence tests such as pattern-making. The research which began when the babies were six weeks old, was conceived by the Medical Research Council psychiatric genetics research unit in London’s Maudsley Hospital. It was initially intended to last just 10 months but the then young researcher wanted to look longer term and explore family interactions.
“I thought, as well as looking at how the little people are, I’d like to look at how it affected their families. It was widely accepted that having a baby with a disability meant that it would be a disaster, that families would break up. That’s what I expected to find” Dr Carr recalls. In fact she discovered that while the babies development was slower than their non-disabled peers, families coped well as the children grew, with youngsters bonding and developing good relationships with their brothers and sisters.
For full article see: www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/19/janet-carr-research-downs-syndrome-family
We are delighted to announce that Melina Malli, PhD student at the Tizard Centre has been successful in gaining a place at the International PGR Workshop being held in Prato. These places are very competitive and this is a great achievement.
The workshop is designed to support and facilitate publications.
This year’s Jim Mansell Memorial lecture was held on Friday 14th April 2014 at Rutherford College with Emeritus Professor Patricia Howlin giving the talk “”What happens to people with autism when they reach adulthood?”.
To see the video go to Resources/Videos and select the Jim Mansell Memorial Lecture tab on our webpage.
The Tizard Centre, University of Kent is hosting this year’s Seattle Club Conference on the 11th & 12th December 2014, being held at Canterbury Cathedral Lodge.
If you have had a oral presentation or poster accepted for this Conference please note that the deadline for registration is the 7th November 2014. Please return the registration documentation forwarded to you together with an accompanying cheque for payment. Alternatively payment can be made using the University of Kent online store.
For full details of this please see the Seattle Club web pages
