Disability Rights & Values
Understand the rights, values, and principles underpinning disability support. These articles explore equality, inclusion, and empowerment for people with learning disabilities.
An Overview of the Mental Health Act
The Mental Health Act 1983 and the amendment in 2007 were created to provide legislation and guidelines when a person with a mental disorder requires detainm...
An Overview: Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Learning Disabilities
There are some people that are severely or profoundly affected by learning disabilities, meaning that their ability to communicate or make decisions is sever...
Becoming a Parent with Learning Disabilities
A child with learning disabilities may one day become a parent with learning disabilities. You might not have given this scenario much thought, but it is a l...
British Institute of Learning Disabilities (BILD)
People with learning disabilities face a wide variety of challenges in their day-to-day lives. With so many aspects of society not ideally suited to those li...
Choosing the Right Care
Each person with learning disabilities develops at their own rate, and the amount of support they need varies. Two people with the same learning disability m...
Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and Employment
Unfortunately, there are some disabled people from a variety of backgrounds that have suffered some level of discrimination in life from society. In 1995, a...
Getting the Right Standard of Care
Learning disabilities are mainly caused by problems in brain development that can occur either through genetic or chromosomal abnormalities. Learning disabil...
Independent Living for People With Learning Disabilities
The move toward self-advocacy for people with learning disabilities includes the right to independent living. The Disability Rights Commission believes that...
Issues Surrounding Ethnicity and Learning Disabilities
The barriers presented by learning disabilities can be overcome with individualised help. But what if one didn't know that help was available? Or what if lan...
Social Inclusion and Learning Disabilities
Historically, people of all ages with learning disabilities have faced poor life chances, largely due to social exclusion. They’ve struggled with acceptanc...
The Human Rights Act and Learning Disabilities
The Human Rights Act 1998 became law in Britain in October 2000, meaning that fundamental freedoms and rights are now legally upheld. Any person that is in t...
The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act
When the government published their Valuing People white paper in 2001, they clearly outlined their desire to protect and discourage discrimination against d...
UK Government Initiative: Valuing People
In 2001 the UK Government set out an action plan that they hoped would improve the lives of everyone affected by learning disabilities. By publishing their w...
Using Medication to Deal with Behaviour Problems
Behaviour problems can often be one of the greatest difficulties for people with learning disabilities to overcome. Behavioural problems quite commonly go ha...
Vulnerable Adults and Protection from Crime
People with learning disabilities may find it difficult to fit in with mainstream society. This can be for a number of reasons, as they may face prejudice an...
What is Person-Centred Planning?
People with learning disabilities have not always had much control over their lives – choices offered to them have tended to be limited, and decisions ofte...
What is the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA)?
People with mild, moderate, severe and profound learning disabilities will require different levels of care and support throughout their lives. A person with...
What is the Mental Capacity Act 2007?
In recent years, the Government sought to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities and their families. There has been much progress in taking t...