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Latest News
Forced marriage and learning disability
Forced marriage of people with learning disabilities: Forced marriage unit/Ann Craft Trust/Judith Trust
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 research projects
Training and skills for dual diagnosis working
How appropriately equipped is the learning disability workforce to work with people who also have mental health problems?
Rose, J., Stenfert-Kroese, B., Davis, A., Brien, A., University of Birmingham
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.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.
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
Using Digital stories for research
The research team is using innovative
methodology to answer their research questions and have created two digital stories for use in interviews.
The digital stories, told from a male and female perspective play images which act as sparking off points for discussion.
They often put research participants at ease and allow a discussion on complex problems like abuse to be facilitated.
Click on the link below to watch the stories.
Watch female digital story
Watch male digital story
Impacts of Ethnicity and gender on learning disability
and mental health
Healthcare
needs and experiences of care among adults with intellectual disability and mental health problems: the impact of ethnicity
and gender: Dr Jane McCarthy, The Estia Centre.
In 2007 the Judith Trust awarded a grant to Dr Jane McCarthy and team from the Estia Centre in London. This project
is still ongoing.
The first stage involved developing
a questionnaire with advice from service users. The second stage involved recruiting participants from two different ethnic
groups; Black British and White British. The team 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 seeks to obtain from its participants a consensus on what they feel about the questions/issues
of concern that are presented to them to consider the impact of ethnicity and gender.
A paper from the initial findings 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'.
Jane McCarthy, Ghazala Mir and Steve Wright. Vol 2, Issue 2, June 2008. To access this article, please click here.
Click here to download research presentation
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Gender, learning disability
and mental health
How well do women
who have serious and enduring mental health problems as well as a learning disability succeed at living in the community: 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?"
A number of papers have been published as a result
of this research study:
'Women with and without intellectual
disability and psychiatric disorders: an examination of the literature'.L.Taggart, R.McMillan and A. Lawson ('Journal of Intellectual Disabilities' - Volume 12, (3), September 2008,
p.191-212.)
‘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
(‘Advances in Mental Health and
Learning Disabilities'- Volume 3 (1), March 2009, p.30-41.)
'Listening
to women with intellectual disabilities and mental health problems- A focus on risk and resilient factors'. L. Taggart,
R, McMillan and A. Lawson
(Journal of Intellectual Disabilities- Volume 13 (4), 2009, p.321-340.)
'Staffs'
knowledge and perceptions of working with women with intellectual disabilities and mental
health problems'L.
Taggart, R. McMillan and A. Lawson
(Journal of Intellectual disability Research-Volume 54 (1), Jan 2010, p. 90-100.)
To read these articles see the links below
Women with and without ID and psychiatric disorders examination of the literature
Predictors of hospital admission for women with LD and psychiatric disorders
Staff's knowledge and perceptions of working with women with LD and psychiatric disorders
Listening to women with ID and mental health problems risk and resilient factors
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Culture, faith and learning
disability Inclusion and
participation in Jewish Spiritual Life: The way forward for people with learning disabilities: Eve Hersov.
In 2003 the Judith Trust commissioned Eve Hersov to research the importance of being Jewish to people with learning
disabilities and their families. The findings were 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) and 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. Interested individuals may apply to the Judith Trust
for a copy of Eve Hersov's chapter, please email judith.trust@lineone.net for more information.
A more comprehensive account of the event on spiritual life can be found here
Learning disability, mental health and deinstitutionalisation A Study of Women with Severe Learning Disabilities Moving out of a Locked Ward: Katherine Owen, St George's
Hospital Medical School, London.
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. Some of the key conclusions were:
- Many of the findings reaffirm existing work, 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 21st 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.
- 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.
The full report is obtainable from The Judith Trust (Price £17.50 plus £1.15 p&p), To order please email judith.trust@lineone.net
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