Evaluation of a mental health liaison team. Part 2: the themes and their effect on practice.

Hospitals and emergency departments (EDs) are caring for increasing numbers of patients who present with underlying mental health issues. Managing these patients can be challenging for clinical staff who often lack the specialist knowledge and skills required to provide appropriate care. This article, part two of two on the evaluation of a newly formed mental health liaison team (MHLT) working in a general hospital, focuses on the perceptions and experiences of the MHLT participants, and explores three sub-themes derived from the interview data.

Evaluation of a mental health liaison team. Part 1: background and literature review.

Hospitals and emergency departments (EDs) are caring for increasing numbers of patients who present with underlying mental health issues. Management of these patients can be challenging for clinical staff who often lack the specialist knowledge and skills required to provide appropriate care. In April 2015, a mental health liaison service was introduced in Rotherham Hospital as part of a two-year pilot scheme.

Intellectual disability, hate crime and other social constructions: A view from South Yorkshire.

The category of hate crime is a recent legislative response to the increasing levels of antisocial, criminal and discriminatory behaviours and practices that target a wide spectrum of individuals on the basis of their identification within certain minority sociological subcultures. People with intellectual disability are often targeted for this kind of behaviour. Here, we report on an evaluation of one English city's efforts to instigate a street-based scheme to offer some security and protection to its intellectually disabled citizens.

'How families live …' - the views and experiences of parent-carers who provide family placements to intellectual disability nursing students.

Aim: We aimed to learn about the value of family placements from the perspective of parent-carers who provide them to nurse students via a Scottish university Family Placement Scheme.

Method: Qualitative interviews were conducted with seven parent-carers who provided a family placement over two academic years. Descriptive data was analysed, organized into themes and subject to content analysis: parents' descriptions of caring; their perceived value of family placements; and their views and experiences of participation in intellectual disability nurse education.

How do people with learning disability experience the city centre? A Sheffield case study.

The use of city centre spaces by people with learning disability is not much debated in the literature. Here we include the thoughts and opinions of groups of people with learning disability as we undertook some guided walks through Sheffield city centre. We found that few of the participants had independent access to the city centre.

Recognising and respecting patients' cultural diversity.

Aim: To explore nursing students' experiences of caring for patients from different and often unfamiliar cultural backgrounds.

Method: Focus group discussions were conducted with nursing students from mental health, learning disability and adult nursing in one university, to obtain qualitative information about areas of difficulty in providing culturally competent care.

Findings: Nursing students expressed difficulties and challenges meeting the cultural needs of patients, with particular focus on issues related to language, food and gender.

Breast cancer information and support needs for women with intellectual disabilities: a scoping study.

Objective: To examine the compass and nature of relevant research and identify gaps in the current evidence in order to determine the priority of future research about breast cancer and intellectual disability (ID).

Methods: A scoping study that comprised of a consultation exercise with a wide range of key stakeholders (n = 26) from one northern city (Sheffield) within the UK.

Results: This study identified numerous gaps in the current evidence base.

Exploring placement pathways in nurse education.

As community-based care has developed in line with current policy towards integrated care, some hospital placement capacity for student health professionals has been lost as a result of service reorganisation. However, student nurses and allied health professionals need to gain a broad range of experience to prepare them for the complex and rapidly changing environments they will be entering as qualified professionals. Placement pathways constitute a means of offering the knowledge and skills to enter the profession in challenging times.

Dr. Tulp, I presume: intellectual disability and ethnicity in Rotherham.

In this article, we report on that aspect of our ongoing simulation project which focuses on the cultural needs of a 'virtual' young man living with profound and multiple intellectual disabilities, who is British Asian and receives care in a residential setting. We describe our involvement with a local agency who support families from black and minority ethnic populations and who have children with a variety of intellectual disabilities. We then go on to detail the focus group we attended and how we incorporated the data generated into a more comprehensive story for our 'virtual' young man, Ahmed.

Dr. Tulp attends the soft machine: patient simulators, user involvement and intellectual disability.

Simulation as a way to teach clinical skills attracts much critical attention. Its benefits, however, might be significantly reduced when the simulation model used relies exclusively on patient simulators. This is particularly true if the intended patient population for students taught is characterized by intellectual disability.

Contemporary issues in the training of UK health and social care professionals--Looking after people with a learning disability.

The health and social care of people labelled with 'learning disability' has historically been a disputed territory for those individuals working within the nursing and allied health professions. In recent times this situation has seen public debate as instances of poor care and avoidable deaths have received a high profile in the popular and professional presses. Here we report on a local initiative where students can study for a joint honours award which allows them to practise as a generic social worker and a learning disability nurse.

Intellectual disability, consumerism and identity: to have and have not?

Here we consider the consumer society as it currently exists in the UK and examine its relationship and relevance to the population of individuals with intellectual disability. We do this through a reading of the associated literature on theories of shopping and consumption which we then contrast with research evidence as it applies to the lives of people with intellectual disability. By brining together these two perspectives we hope to shine some light on ideas around identity and choice.

The anatomy lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp: what can it teach us today?

We report on the use of a high fidelity patient simulator (SimMan) within a clinical lab setting to teach learning disability nursing students about epilepsy management. We had previously prepped the students with verbal discussions on epilepsy management and, when the simulator began to undergo a seizure, small groups of students managed the unfolding scenario. We received written feedback from the students on the experience, and with reference to this and to the wider literature we consider the benefits of this approach to patient care.

A problem with inclusion in learning disability research.

People with severe learning disability are particularly difficult to include in the research process. As a result, researchers may be tempted to focus on those with learning disability who can be included. The problem is exacerbated in this field as the political agenda of inclusion and involvement is driven by those people with learning disability who are the higher functioning.

Become a role model for good practice.

Handwashing is a vital part of the job yet not everyone does it.

"Riding the bumpy seas": or the impact of the Knowledge Skills Framework component of the Agenda for Change initiative on staff in intermediate care settings.

This paper explores the compatibility of the recently modernized NHS pay structure, "Agenda for Change" (AfC) with the workforce flexibilities arising within intermediate care services in the NHS in England. The findings reported here were an unanticipated outcome of a larger, Department of Health (England) study which explored the impact of workforce flexibility on the costs and outcomes of older peoples' community-based services. The research coincided with the introduction of AfC, and, as such pay modernization was a strongly emergent theme from focus groups that involved 11 teams as part of the larger study.

People with intellectual disabilities as bloggers: what's social capital got to do with it anyway?

The concept of social capital, the socially constructed category of intellectual disability and the social practice of blogging may appear initially to be unconnected. In this study we report on an attempt to link the three as we examine the consequences of giving a group of people with intellectual disability supported access to the Internet and specifically to that section of cyberspace known as the ;blogosphere'. Using the Social Capital Question Bank as a framework, we interrogate the data in an attempt to discover whether the qualities associated with successful inclusion within society might be available via the blogging community.

Language, labels and diagnosis: an idiot's guide to learning disability.

The phrase 'learning disability' is just one in a long succession of descriptors applied to those people in our society who are categorized by a matrix of psycho-medical assessments, marginalized by compromised intellectual function, characterized by increased health needs and excluded from the mainstream on the basis of reduced social opportunity. But what exactly is 'learning disability'? Is there an empirical basis to the label, or is it just another example of bureaucratic language objectifying individuals in a process of medicalization? Historical examples will be used to illustrate the origins of the taxonomy that has subsequently formed the basis of the labelling process. The more recent words of individuals labelled with learning disability too will be introduced to offer some grounding to the debate.

Lights, camera, education! The potentials of forum theatre in a learning disability nursing program.

Learning disability nurse education, with a current emphasis on inclusive practice and a history of listening to the person with the disability, is well placed to take advantage of more 'experimental' forms of classroom teaching. In this article we argue for the use of forum theatre as a method of addressing topics from practice within an educational setting. Based on our emergent and exploratory work with students we detail at length the theoretical background that supports such an approach and contextualise the issues with reference to a short piece of drama we have used successfully with different student groups.

The organization of difference: people with intellectual disabilities and the social model of disability.

In this article I propose that the experience of people categorized as having intellectual disabilities is inadequately represented by current disability theory, premised, as much of it is, on the socially constructed duality between disability and impairment. I argue that representation of intellectual disability within the wider world of disability in general will only be achieved by thinking of disability on a continuum. This should preserve individual identities while reducing categorization and the attendant essentialist versus constructionist conflict.