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1 – 10 of over 1000The author has been involved in setting up a library situated in a Community Mental Handicap Team room within a hospital. The library will shortly form the basis for a…
Abstract
The author has been involved in setting up a library situated in a Community Mental Handicap Team room within a hospital. The library will shortly form the basis for a comprehensive information service within the ‘Foremost Community Programme’, a joint venture undertaken by Brighton Health Authority and East Sussex Social Services. In this article he describes his experiences in setting up this Library.
Julie Beadle‐Brown, Jim Mansell, Paul Cambridge and Rachel Forrester‐Jones
This article focuses on the development and current situation of services for people with learning disabilities in England. Deinstitutionalisation started in the 1960s, when a…
Abstract
This article focuses on the development and current situation of services for people with learning disabilities in England. Deinstitutionalisation started in the 1960s, when a series of scandals in hospitals were brought to public attention. In response, the 1971 government White Paper Better Services for the Mentally Handicapped was published, and the first community‐based services were introduced. Further policy papers attempted to modernise social services in the following period. The 2001 White paper Valuing People is the most recent policy framework specific to people with intellectual disabilities. It identifies rights, independence, choice and inclusion as the four leading principles for services and support, and will be of primary importance for future development. However, at present implementation is in the very early stages. Not least, the intense implementation of market mechanisms by the Thatcher Government in the 1980s and 1990s has led to a situation that is hard to grasp, the organisation of care and support varying from authority to authority.
Interest in the quality of services for people with a mental handicap has arisen from three main sources; administrative and financial monitoring, research, and humanitarian…
Abstract
Interest in the quality of services for people with a mental handicap has arisen from three main sources; administrative and financial monitoring, research, and humanitarian concern. Three related concepts are: quality of service, which equates roughly to structure; quality of care, which is a process‐oriented concept concerning the interaction of care staff and clients; and quality of life, which reflects the outcome of service provision and the views of consumers. In a literature review, the author distinguishes two methodological approaches: evaluation, which is a point‐in‐time measure; and monitoring, which is an ongoing process. Research findings on the three dimensions listed above are discussed in the context of these two methods; limitations and confusions are outlined, particularly in accreditation‐based systems. The importance of a total quality approach is stressed, combined with an emphasis on the effects of services on individual mentally handicapped people.
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This paper demonstrates the lack of importance which, until recently, has been accorded to the distinction between hearing loss and learning disability when they occur together…
Abstract
This paper demonstrates the lack of importance which, until recently, has been accorded to the distinction between hearing loss and learning disability when they occur together. It then emphasises the problems which this has caused, including challenging behaviour. A summary of the causes common to both learning disability and hearing loss is given, along with brief descriptions of tests used to diagnose hearing loss in the learning‐disabled. The importance of team work is stressed, together with the necessity of education for all personnel working with the learning‐disabled. Some ideas contributing to rehabilitation are suggested and the importance of restoring some hearing even to the most severely handicapped is described. Finally, readers are reminded that rehabilitation is not a ‘quick fix’ but the product of much patient work undertaken by all concerned probably over a long period.
This paper is written with particular reference to service development for the mentally ill and mentally handicapped in the UK.
Yannick Fronda and Marie Astrid Le Theule
Dealing with psycho‐sociological handicaps is a hidden problem of capitalism, which targets full‐employment societies. However, taking educational and social costs into account…
Abstract
Purpose
Dealing with psycho‐sociological handicaps is a hidden problem of capitalism, which targets full‐employment societies. However, taking educational and social costs into account, it is easily seen that getting rid of these fragile persons is a huge waste for a society as a whole. The aim of this paper is to sketch the possibilities of integrating the work of psycho‐sociologically handicapped as a positive outcome for both economy and society.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the case of France, the paper points out that no easy solution exists. Integration at any price may generate huge suffering; positive discrimination raises problems of justice between employees; putting these people aside from workplaces and granting them some kind of subvention, all these “solutions” have obvious drawbacks.
Findings
The paper considers the possibilities of “semi‐competitive” sectors, as they still exist in France – even tough hardly attacked by ultra‐liberal ideology – as an acceptable and balanced solution to the problem of economical and social integration of psycho‐sociological handicapped people.
Originality/value
Originality comes from the crossing of psycho‐analytic, sociologic and care literatures on a matter (psychosocial handicap) that is too seldom taken into account in business and society studies.
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Between 1984 and 1987 the South Western Regional Health Authority funded research to compare the costs and quality of alternative residential services for people with learning…
Abstract
Between 1984 and 1987 the South Western Regional Health Authority funded research to compare the costs and quality of alternative residential services for people with learning difficulties (mental handicap). During this period, 14 residential services were evaluated. The services covered a wide range of models of care and included: small homes run on ‘ordinary life’ principles based in the community, funded and/or managed by health authorities and social services departments; small (health authority) homes in, or adjacent to, mental handicap hospital grounds; traditional mental handicap hospitals; and private or voluntary sector hostels for up to 12 people.
Valuing People has been widely welcomed by learning disability services. But it promises a major expansion of unenforceable assessments which will divert practitioners from…
Abstract
Valuing People has been widely welcomed by learning disability services. But it promises a major expansion of unenforceable assessments which will divert practitioners from responding to the needs of their clients into the production of reports.
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In this article I will first summarise the model of community care proposed by Jack Tizard more than 40 years ago. I will consider the extent to which this model has been…
Abstract
In this article I will first summarise the model of community care proposed by Jack Tizard more than 40 years ago. I will consider the extent to which this model has been implemented and developments since and review the strengths and weaknesses of current models, as exemplified by Valuing People, considering them in their historical context.
Willem H. Van Harten, Marleen J.M. Veldhuis, Bernhard H. Hoeksma and Koos J. Krabbendam
The purpose of this paper is to describe an inventory of the strategic responses of institutional providers of mental handicapped care to the strengthening of consumer choice…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe an inventory of the strategic responses of institutional providers of mental handicapped care to the strengthening of consumer choice through a personal care budget (PCB)
Design/methodology/approach
Semi structured interviews were conducted among 26 providers covering 52 per cent of the total market volume of about 100,000 clients annually.
Findings
A representative number of providers was included; on average a percentage below the national average of PCB users was found to be served. Of the 26 providers, 16 indicated adaption to their strategy in response to expected consumer empowerment. The actual deployment of this response in the organisations seemed not to be very thorough or explicit. Surprisingly, as a growing part of PCB‐clients choose alternative providers, no concerns were raised concerning the possible emergence of new service providers.
Originality/value
Although the market share of PCB users is growing fast and existing providers do not seem to absorb this accordingly, a lack of market analysis and strategic behaviour of the traditional providers in response to this development was found. Based on this research growth of market shares of disruptive service providers can very well be anticipated.
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