Editorial
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AMHID-05-2017-0018 |
| Pages | 85-85 |
| Date | 02 May 2017 |
| Published date | 02 May 2017 |
| Author | Raistrick W. Turton |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Learning & intellectual disabilities |
Raistrick W. Turton
Volume 11 Issue 3 includes four papers on fairly disparate topics. We trust that readers will find
useful information and ideas in all of them. We also have a review by Professor Deb of the Third
Edition of Psychiatric and Behavioural Disorders in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
(Hemmings and Bouras, 2016), which provides a good overview of the book and will help
readers to see its relevance to their practice.
Raghavan and Griffin review recent literature on resilience in children with a specific attention to
its relevance to children who have intellectual disabilities. They find that little of the reported
research focussed on children who have intellectual disabilities and note that this is a neglected
area. These authors discuss several risk factors associated with intellectual disabilities in
children, then proceed to a review of protective factors and note the associations between these
factors and intellectual disabilities. They conclude that research consistently reports poor
outcomes for children who have intellectual disabilities, but there is little knowledge of the role of
resilience in protecting these children.
The Transforming Care project that developed from responses to Winterbourne View places
great emphasis on the discharge of people who have intellectual disabilities from hospital care.
One factor that can be a barrier to discharge from hospitals, particularly from secure hospitals,
is the perceived degree of risk to and risk presented by patients when they return to the
community. Chester et al. explore an aspect this perception, namely, the experience and
understanding of risk assessment by community team members. This piece of qualitative
research highlights a number of issues that affect perceptions of risk, not only the characteristics
of patients themselves but also the nature of community provision and resources, and the
complexities of the legal frameworks that apply.
Ramerman et al. examine prescribers’adherence to guidelines for prescription of antipsychotics
in the Netherlands. They found that adherence was poor. This problem is not limited to the
Netherlands; the literature cited by these authors provides a rich diet of other studies that found
similar problems in other places. It is to be hoped that this kind of research will be pursued in
other places and that the effect will be that adherence improves.
Chaplin and Marshall-Tate’s“personal view”is a cogent argument for greater use of self-help
materials by people who have intellectual disabilities and experience mental health difficulties.
It reflects a point made by two service users, Cronin and Peters, in their paper included in Issue 1
of this Volume 11, namely, that increased ability to engage in self-help increases a service user’s
sense of self-sufficiency and confidence. Chaplin and Marshall-Tate also give a useful review of
accessible self-help materials that clinicians can introduce their clients to.
Reference
Hemmings, C. and Bouras, N. (Eds) (2016), Psychiatric and Behavioural Disorders in Intellectual and
Developmental Disabilities, 3rd ed., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
DOI 10.1108/AMHID-05-2017-0018 VOL. 11 NO. 3 2017, p. 85, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2044-1282
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Editorial
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