Previous Work

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The Judith Trust is working in partnership with the Ann Craft Trust and the Forced Marriage Unit on a small scale research project to look at forced marriages of people with learning disabilities. The project aims to examine how and why some people with learning disabilities may be married when they lack the capacity to consent to marriage and all it entails. It aims to look at family and community perspectives and those of professionals involved in such cases.

The project commenced in November 2009 and is due to finish in July 2010.

Current Projects

The Judith Trust has awarded a grant to a research team from The University of Birmingham, Dudley Primary Care Trust and South Staffordshire and Shropshire Foundation Trust.

Members of the research team are:

Dr. John Rose - Academic Director, Clinical Psychology Department, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham and Divisional Clinical Psychologist, Dudley South Primary Care Trust

Dr. Biza Stenfert Kroese - Head of Psychology Services for Adults with Learning Disabilities, Staffordshire and Shropshire Health NHS Foundation Trust and Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, University of Birmingham.

Professor Ann Davis - Professor of Social Work and Director of the Centre of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Mental Health (CEIMH), The University of Birmingham

Dr. Alex O'Brien - Principal Clinical Psychologist, Adults with Learning Disabilities, Dudley PCT

The study will be conducted over a two year period, it commenced in November 2008 and will examine the training, knowledge, skills and experience of a range of workers from learning disability services on the subject of mental illness and mental health promotion.

Healthcare needs and experiences of care among adults with intellectual disability and mental health problems: the impact of ethnicity and gender.

In 2007 the Judith Trust awarded a grant to Dr Jane McCarthy and team from the Estia Centre in London. The project is still underway and due to be completed at the end of 2009.

The team have recruited participants from two ethnic groups to date; Black British and White British and are planning to recruit a further group from the South Asian Community. Participants are men and women who use mental health services and who have a learning disability. Some live independently, some in residential services and some with their families.

The research team are using a qualitative approach and a consensus building method for collecting data called the ‘Delphi Consultation’. The consultation is a composite of a group’s expert knowledge. The experts in this study are service users on their local mental health services. This methodology seeks to obtain from its participants a consensus on what they feel about the questions/issues of concern that are presented to them.

The first step involved developing a questionnaire with advice from service users.

Next an initial consultation was carried out using interviews supported by a questionnaire.

Service users & carers will next provide responses to the questions through a second round of consultation on their responses with the opportunity to revaluate their answer/opinion with the median scores of the group from the first round & their own score from the first round.

The research team then examine more closely the responses to the questionnaire considering the impact of ethnicity and gender and note those questions that have seen the highest or lowest consensus within the group.

A paper has been published in the Journal Advances in Mental Health and Learning Disabilities, titled: ‘People with learning disabilities and mental health problems: the impact of ethnicity’. By Jane McCarthy, Ghazala Mir and Steve Wright. Vol 2, Issue 2, June 2008.

Click here to download a poster presentation on the research to date

Dr. Laurence Taggart - University of Ulster

The Judith Trust awarded a grant for a two year period to Dr Laurence Taggart of the University of Ulster in 2005. The project explored to what extent successful living in the community after the move from long-stay hospitals is affected by the diagnosis of both learning disabilities and mental health problems, posing answers to the question:

"Having moved from long-stay hospitals, how well do women who have serious and enduring mental health problems as well as a learning disability succeed at living in the community, as compared with those who do not have additional mental health problems?"

The first paper published as a result of this study is titled:

'Women with and without intellectual disability and psychiatric disorders:an examination of the literature'.

L.Taggart, R.McMillan and A. Lawson

The paper can be found in:

'Journal of Intellectual Disabilities' - Volume 12, Number 3, September 2008, p.191-212.

The second paper published from this study is titled:

'Predictors of hospital admission for women with learning disabilities and psychiatric disorders compared with women maintained in community settings'.

L.Taggart, R.McMillan and A. Lawson

The paper can be found in:

'Advances in Mental Health and Learning Disabilities'- Volume 3, Issue 1, March 2009, p.30-41.

Previous research and publications:

Inclusion and participation in Jewish Spiritual Life:

the way forward for people with learning disabilities

In 2003 the Judith Trust commissioned Eve Hersov to research the importance of being Jewish to people with learning disabilities and their families.

Published by Haworth in early 2007 in Jewish Perspectives on Theology and the Human Experience of Learning Disability, (eds: J. Z. Abrams and W. C. Gaventa) the Trust held an event which aimed to explore the findings, encourage dialogue across the Jewish community and find practical ways forward that would enable people with learning disabilities take a full and active role in all aspects of Jewish life.

A full description of the event and subsequent setting up of a network is given at the link on the home page. You may apply to the Trust for a copy of Eve Hersov's chapter.

A more comprehensive account of the day can be found here

A Study of Women with Severe Learning Disabilities Moving out of a Locked Ward

Katherine Owen - St George's Hospital Medical School

Deinstitutionalisation - moving people from big care institutions to more intimate arrangements in “the community” - has been government policy for 30 years.

This study of a selection of women during 1999-2002 was set up to understand and influence policy and implementation so as to better meet the needs of women making this transition from a locked ward in an old “mental handicap” hospital into homes in the community.

A brief Summary of the Conclusions follows:

Many of the findings are not new, particularly the lower quality of life provided by campus home on hospital sites
The transition of people from long stay hospitals to new homes has not significantly improved into the 21^st century
This could be because people with severe learning disabilities continue to be defined mainly by their differences and diagnosis rather than as human beings with rich emotional lives like everyone else.
Finally this report exposes that when moving out of long stay hospitals women are denied their fundamental right to be involved in the shaping of their own lives, and to be known and understood as individuals.

Full Report obtainable from The Judith Trust

ISBN 0 9535599-1-2, price £17.50 plus £1.15 p&p