Tizard News and Events

Working together to deliver positive behaviour support

The 2017 International Positive Behaviour Support Research and Practice Conference is being held in Bristol 3/4/5 May 2017.  The underlying theme of this is about delivering the most effective support, building on strengths and meeting even the most complex of needs successfully.

The speakers include international academics contributing global perspectives . Peter Baker, Jill Bradshaw, Nick Gore and Tony Osgood from Tizard will all be presenting papers at the Conference.

For full details of the Conference and to book a place please go the BILD webpage.

Help us to pilot a new questionnaire designed to measure the quality of life of people with learning disabilities or autism who use adult social care services.

This project is a pilot of a new questionnaire that is part of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT) (see www.pssru.ac.uk/ascot). ASCOT questionnaires are used to collect information about the quality of life of people who use social care support. This information may be used to monitor, evaluate and improve the quality of services.

We are looking for organisations in Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex, Kent, Surrey, Leeds, Wiltshire or Warwickshire to help us with this research project.

This would involve:

• Identifying adults (aged 18 years or older) with learning disabilities or autism in your organisation who would be able to complete an Easy Read questionnaire with 30 questions, either alone or with some help.
• Giving out information packs and questionnaires to people who may be interested in taking part, and facilitating informed consent, where necessary.
• Helping people to complete the questionnaire, if necessary.
• Completing a very short form with two questions about where the respondent lives and the type(s) of services used.
• Returning consent forms and completed questionnaires to the research team (FREEPOST envelopes will be provided).

Summaries of the findings of the research will be made available to participating providers.  The project has been approved by the Social Care Research Ethics Committee (SCREC).

If you would like more information, please contact Stacey Rand by 13^th March 2017.
Stacey Rand, Research Fellow
Email: s.e.rand@kent.ac.uk
Telephone: 01227 823877

The next SPELL Framework Training is being held on the 3/4/5 July 2017 at the University of Kent, Canterbury campus.  Prof Julie Beadle-Brown will be delivering the training aimed at understanding and supporting children and adults on the autism spectrum using the SPELL framework.

Full details of this training are available on the Tizard short course page

To register and pay for this please go to the University of Kent online store.

If you further information or have any additional queries please contact J.Ruffels@kent.ac.uk   A reduced fee is offered to current students, those who have previously studied at Tizard or parents with children with autism.

Gabor Petri, PhD student with the Tizard Centre, has just completed an interview for an independent Hungarian blog carried out with Dr Michelle McCarthy, covering her work on domestic violence and women with learning disabilities.

The blog has proved a great success with 4000 visitors and 300 likes on Facebook.  The interview was well-received by parents’ organisations and professionals and widely shared by national DPO’s and advocates.  This small success will help to raise awareness about abuse in Hungary.

The interview is available, but is in hungarian.
Michelle’s research and findings on domestic violence are available on the Tizard webpages

One of our post grad students and autistic self advocate, George Watts is trying to contact other autistic adults in Kent to ask if they would be interested in contributing their photos to a film about happiness, to raise awareness of the non-tragic aspects of autism. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please ask them to get in touch with her at gnw3@kent.ac.uk

Information: 

In this research project we wanted to hear directly from women with learning disabilities themselves about the domestic violence they had experienced. (We also explored the views, attitudes and responses of the Police and health and social care professionals and these will be reported elsewhere).

Click here to read Michelle’s full blog about the project

Monday 20 February 2017 – Prof Angela Hassiotis will be giving the Tizard lecture “Service level delivery of positive behaviour support: what does the evidence suggest?” PBS is an established and widely used treatment for challenging behaviour with additional gains in quality of life.  Although many studies of PBS exist, none of those has been a randomised controlled trial (RCT). For the past 4 years Prof Hassiotis and her team have  carried out a cluster RCT of community services staff delivered PBS which included a clinical and cost evaluation and a process evaluation.   In the seminar, Prof Hassiotis shall discuss the trial findings and issues arising from conducting research in complex interventions and consider PBS implementation within the emerging landscape of transforming care.
This is being held at the earlier time of 1600 hrs in DLT2 (Darwin College)

Please email J.Ruffels@kent.ac.uk if you wish to attend this event.

The Tizard Centre rounded up the year with their Centre Meeting today with plenty to discuss going forward but with also much to celebrate regarding staff achievements over the past year.  The following represents some of the high points of both the academic and support staff:

Lisa Richardson “positive feedback from consultancy working with young child”
Aida Malovic “thesis first author publication”
Phil Robinson “pleased to increase my hours to provide more support to Tizard in 2017”
Simona Uberti “moving to Cornwallis and feeling part of the Tizard team again”
Nicole Palmer “did first solo presentation at a Conference (Seattle Club) on a piece of research I had done myself as part of my PhD study”
Magali Barnoux “My first year working on mATCH with Pete Langdon has been fantastic and I love the work.  it is an incredible opportunity and I am learning so much.  I am happy to be part of the Tizard family”
Serena Brady “Finally recruiting some participants for my PhD”
Ciara Padden “Involved in redeveloping ABA programme and developing PBS programme, both approved and started and obtained BACB approval”
Nick Gore “speaking after My Feral Heart (film viewing) at the Gulbenkian and meeting with Square Pegs”
Roy Deveau “it was great to have my Honorary Research Associate post renewed after 4 years, that will take me past seventy years of age.”
Melina Malli  “Publishing my second article and having more than 2,900 downloads in less than a month”
Claire Bates “Publishing my first, second and third academic articles”
Jo Ruffels “Attending and presenting at the SHIEC Conference in November 2016 and listening to all the different experiences regarding supported employment”
Mandy Twyman “Having Tizard all in one place, like having your family altogether”
Julie Beadle-Brown “Seeing the enthusiasm at the end of the project celebration in Jatta School in Stavanger, especially the Tizard song”.  

It just remains to wish all our staff, students and associates a great Christmas and a happy New Year.

Prof Glynis Murphy presented the early results of the OFFSCA-ID research to Kent & Medway Partnership Trusts (November 2016).

The project involved following up men with learning disabilities who had been in prison. The research found the men were very unsupported when they left prison; they frequently had very little to do during the day; they were depressed and anxious to a significant degree; and frequently went back into restrictive settings. Much better support is needed for this vulnerable group.

A quick reminder to you all that ‘My feral heart” is showing this Saturday (10 Dec) at 15:00 hrs in the Gulbenkian cinema.

A sudden bereavement throws Luke, a fiercely independent young man with Down’s syndrome, into a daunting new environment where he finds unexpected support from his feisty, streetwise carer and a local heir dealing with his own demons. As friendships bloom and long-buried secrets are revealed, Luke verges dangerously close to disaster. My Feral Heart is a beautifully realised, understated character study bolstered by strong performances, distinctive cinematography and a deeply evocative score.

15:00 – Screening of My Feral Heart preceded by an introduction from Square Pegs Drama Club and a screening of their Christmas music video.

16:40 approx – Post-show discussion and Q&A with Nick Gore, Tizard Centre, Square Pegs Drama Club, ConfiDance and the film Producer

17:30 – Accessible Film Club research/consultation in the café – all welcome (this is facilitated by Gulbenkian and the plan is to launch an accessible film club in the new year, so we’re giving people the opportunity to provide their input)

If you want to read more details or to book tickets in advance go to the Gulbenkian web page.