Learning disabilities - voices

There is no substitute for hearing from the people in the excluded groups themselves. This voices section contains links to publications and other media, such as videos, that try to capture the lived in experience of their situation.

RCN: Peter's story
Learning Disability Nursing is under real pressure; these inspirational nurses are being stretched too thinly and posts are being lost. Despite this, they make a remarkable difference to the lives of people with learning disabilities, people like Peter. Also hear nurses describe why they decided to specialize in learning disability nursing and what their proudest moments have been.

Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (2008) Forgotten citizens
Forgotten citizens was a national conference held by the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Sciences (IRISS) in Glasgow. The conference celebrated Learning Disability Week 2008. There are audio files of the conference speakers and interviews with people with learning disabilities and parents of children with learning disabilities. Examples include:

  • Forgotten citizens: An interview with David Kinloch.
    David Kinloch speaks about his experiences of being in long-stay hospital and how this affected his life
  • Forgotten Citizens: Researching the Past - Dorothy Atkinson and Mabel Cooper.
    Dorothy Atkinson and Mabel Cooper share their experiences of working alongside one another to find out about Mabel's past in long stay institutions in England
  • Forgotten Citizens: Research for the Future - Kate Skinner.
    Kate Skinner talks about the importance of research into services for people with learning disabilities and examines how it impacts on everyone involved with providing services to people with learning disabilities and their families
  • Forgotten Citizens: Tomorrow's Citizens - Jo Cochrane.
    Jo Cochrane talks about why it is so important not to lose the histories of people with learning disabilities.

Mencap
Mencap's YouTube channel.

Mencap (2010) Getting it right campaign
'Getting it right’ is Mencap’s campaign for equal health care for all children and adults with a learning disability. Here are two stories from the campaign:

Mencap (2008) Ciara's experience of bullying
Ciara Evans works as a campaigns assistant at Mencap. Here she talks about why it is so important to support the Don't Stick it Stop it campaign against the bullying of children with learning disabilities.

Social Care TV: Personalisation for someone with a learning disability
This film looks at how personal budgets can benefit both the service user and their family/carers.

University of Bristol & Bristol Crisis Service for Women: Hidden Pain? Self injury and people with learning disabilities (PDF 929.7KB)
This report presents the findings from a UK-wide three-year research project about the views of people with learning disabilities who self-injure. The research has been undertaken by Bristol Crisis Service for Women in partnership with the Norah Fry Research Centre at the University of Bristol. A summary of findings and easy read version are also available.
View: Summary of findings (PDF 188.4KB)
View: Easy read summary (PDF 573.2 KB)