Background: Living active adult lives is both a value and a right, but the right to do so is associated with restrictions among adults with learning disabilities. This research aimed to capture professionals' understanding and perception of active adult living for people with learning disabilities living in clustered housing in a Norwegian…

Background: Young people with learning disabilities are frequently underrepresented in research accounts. This study describes the experiences of young people moving from the care system. Methods: We scoped the English and Swedish literature for first-hand accounts and interviewed four young people with learning disabilities leaving the English…

At least 20-30% of offenders within the criminal justice system (CJS) have learning disabilities or difficulties. This creates significant challenges in relation to meeting their information needs about rights, entitlements, processes and procedures. We report a pilot project where widgit Symbols were used to create more accessible information…

It has been well documented that people with learning disabilities receive poor care in acute settings. Over the last few years, a number of learning disability liaison nurse services have developed in the United Kingdom as a response to this, but there has been a failure to systematically gather evidence as to their effectiveness. This article…

Experiences of eight staff working with people who have a learning disability and complex mental health needs were explored by interviews and analysed using the free association narrative interview approach (Hollway & Jefferson 2000). Participants reported that organisational factors such as not having enough permanent staff and having to manage a…

The Stage Life was a participatory arts programme for people attending a day services provision in Nottinghamshire. The uniqueness of this programme was that it was provided in a local disused cinema acquired by the local authority for community-based activities amongst disadvantaged groups. The Stage Life aimed to build the community arts…

Self-efficacy has been reported to play a significant role in stress levels of parents facing challenging behaviours of their children with learning disabilities. The role of self-efficacy has also been found to affect the stress levels of professional caregivers in such situations. To understand the implications of staff self-efficacy in…

People with learning disabilities have fewer choice opportunities than the general population. Existing research provides some insight, but the choice-making experiences of those who do not always utilise available healthcare remains under-explored. This research explored the choice-making experiences of two groups of individuals with a learning…

This research project used semi-structured in-depth interviews to ask women with learning disabilities about the experience of being prescribed contraception. It also asked general practitioners about their prescribing practices through a postal survey. A service user group was involved at different stages of the project. Most of the women…

Prevalence rates vary considerably regarding the mental health of people with learning disabilities. This variation is a consequence of the assessment methods used to identify such clinical conditions and also different populations studied. The aim of this study was to screen for mental health problems in adults with mild-to-moderate learning…

This study explores the perceptions of support workers working with adults with learning/intellectual disabilities, training and support needs. Data was collected by focus group (n = 3) and semi-structured interviews (n = 5). Participants saw their key role as maximising quality of life, identified "Trial and error" as the main mode of skill…

This paper reports on research that illuminates how people with a learning disability understand dementia and indicates the implications of these understandings for developing appropriate models of care. As this new policy and practice area struggles to provide appropriate and effective models of care for people with a learning disability and…

Here we describe the process by which research questions were developed for reducing health risks for people with learning disabilities. A participatory approach was used to give service users and carers a clear voice in "deciding" questions, thereby setting the research agenda. Audio-taped interviews and focus groups were used. Forty people (20…

This paper reports the findings of a study commissioned by the Scottish Executive which examined the introduction and implementation of local area co-ordination (LAC) in Scotland. A questionnaire about their posts was completed by 44 local area co-ordinators, interviews were conducted with 35 local area co-ordinators and 14 managers and case…

There is evidence that people with learning disabilities who offend are treated differently within the criminal justice system compared to non-disabled offenders. As their treatment depends on decisions made by professionals within the criminal justice system, this study set out to explore the attitudes of these professionals. Semi-structured…