Tizard News and Events

In the first week of December, Prof Murphy spent 4 days training psychology staff in Wakefield and Wynott prisons, alongside FPLD staff, to deliver a new adapted treatment programme for offenders with learning disabilities.  This work is led by Alison Giraud Saunders from the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities.  Prof Murphy is acting as the clinical psychology consultant for adaptions to the Thinking Skills programme, a cognitive behavioural programme that helps offenders gain self-control, problem-solving and relationship skills.  Up until now the programme had not been available for people with learning difficulties but the Ministry of Justice is keen to put this right, hence the new adapted programme that is being piloted in prisons.

Six members of the Tizard team travelled to the Seattle Club Conference, for young researchers in learning disabilities, in Kendal in December, with Prof Glynis Murphy giving the key note speech “Intellectual Disabilities and the Criminal Justice System: Recent Research and Remaining Questions”. 

Paraskevi Triantafyllopoulou, Research Assistant,  presented  her recent research “Carers’ views of sleep disorders in adults with intellectual disabilities”.  The prevalence of sleep problems in people with intellectual disabilities (ID) is much higher than in the general population.  Most of the studies investigating sleep in ID tend to focus on children rather than adults.  The aim of the current study is to identify the most common sleep problems that carers believe adults with ID tend to experience; to investigate whether a degree of ID affects sleep problems and finally to look at whether the carers’ views of the individuals’ challenging behaviours correlate with sleep problems.

 Dr Jill Bradshaw, newly appointed Lecturer, gave a  poster presentation “Staff attributions of challenging behaviour and perceptions of communication in adults with intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviour”.   Communication partners have a major role in making interpretations of communicative acts.  This research was designed to provide opportunities for these partners (staff supporting service users) to discuss their views, experiences and interpretations of communication and challenging behaviour in order to explore the role these play in their interactions and responses.

Likewise Aida Malovic, Research Assistant at the Tizard  also gave a poster presentation.   Aida’s poster is based on “The people with Asperger Sydrome and anxiety disorders (PAsSA) trial”.  There is a body of literature demonstrating that children, adolescents and adults with Asperger Syndrome and high functioning autism have significant problems with anxiety.  These problems may significantly impair their quality of life. There is evidence to suggest that cognitive behaviour therapy is an effective treatment for anxiety.  The study is looking to determine whether or not psychological treatments for anxiety can be adapted and used to successfully treat the anxiety experienced by people with Asperger syndrome. 

http://www.kent.ac.uk/tizard/research/Current_recent_research.html

http://www.seattleclub.org.uk/

The government has  published its final report into the events at Winterbourne View Hospital and has set out a programme of action to transform services so that vulnerable people no longer live inappropriately in hospitals and are cared for in line with best practice.

The programme is backed by a concordat signed by more than 50 partners, setting out what changes they will deliver and by when. The government will publish a progress report on these actions by December 2013.

The final report into the events at Winterbourne View Hospital states that staff routinely mistreated and abused patients, and management allowed a culture of abuse to flourish. The warning signs were not picked up, and concerns raised by a whistleblower went unheeded.

The report also reveals weaknesses in the system’s ability to hold the leaders of care organisations to account. In addition, it finds that many people are in hospital who don’t need to be. People with learning disabilities or autism, who also have mental health conditions or challenging behaviour can be, and have a right to be, given the support and care they need in the community, near to family and friends.

Read the final report: http://www.dh.gov.uk/health/2012/12/final-winterbourne/

Dr Frank Keating, Senior Lecturer at the Royal Holloway University, London, will be giving the third in our series of Seminars.   “Black and minority ethnic (BME) men’s constructions of emotional wellbeing”.  This is being held on the 28th November 2012 at the Kent Business School, Lecture Theatre at 1700-1800hrs.

The mental health needs of BME men is an area for public concern.  These groups are disproportionately represented in mental health statistics.  Common concerns include the high rates of schizophrenia and psychotic disorders and the fact that these men normally find themselves at the harsher end of mental health services.  This presentation will report the findings from a qualitative study to explore BME men’s perceptions and constructions of emotional well-being.  It will conclude that a complex mix of gendered and racial experiences, coercive power of institutions and men’s own perceptions of services and vice versa contribute to how BME men construe emotional well-being. 

To book a place please email J.Ruffels@kent.ac.uk

Related news:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20300506

We are delighted to announce that following the sad and untimely death of Prof Jim Mansell, a large number of friends, relatives, and colleagues as well as individuals who had never met Jim, donated a significant amount of money, just over £3,700 in total.  It has been agreed by United Response and The Challenging Behaviour Foundation that this will be used towards producing the film “Everybody Matters“; a project dear to Jim’s heart and in which he himself participated.  It is hoped that the final film will raise awareness and demonstrate that individuals with learning disabilities, whose behaviour is described as challenging, can be successfully supported to have good lives within their local community. 

A training resource pack will also be developed and information about the film including a 10 minute trailer is now available.  http://www.challengingbehaviour.org.uk/strategy-group/everybody-matters-film/everybody-matters.html

The film follows on from the abuse highlighted by BBC’s Panorama in 2011, when Jim was quoted as saying:

“there’s no doubt that we need to take action to stop these kinds of services being used in this way as dumping grounds as an alternative to developing proper local services for people”   

Jim’s contribution to improving the lives of some of the most marginalised, vulnerable and excluded individuals has been immense.  We would also like to thank all of those who generously gave donations and made the completion of this project possible.