A School of Psychology project has been shedding light on the social care experiences of people with learning disabilities from minority ethnic populations.
A School of Psychology project has been shedding light on the social care experiences of people with learning disabilities from minority ethnic populations.
At a recent event the research team launched one of the outcomes of their project: a series of short videos and discussion activities called Tools for Talking.
The event took place at Hornton Grange and was attended by researchers, practitioners and managers from academic, health and social care organisations.
The materials were created by Dr Michael Larkin, Dr Gemma Unwin, Dr Biza Kroese and Prof John Rose as part of their research, which was funded by the NIHR School for Social Care Research.
The Tools for Talking have been designed to be used by people with learning disabilities and their support workers. They were refined using feedback from people with learning disabilities and care providers and produced with help from a designer at Easy Read Online.
Each paired video and activity enables the service user and their support worker to come to an understanding of a different aspect of the service user's needs, such as their cultural identity, relational and social network or preferred relationship with their support worker.
Both sets of materials are now freely available on the Tools for Talking website.
For more information about the team’s research visit the Accessing Social Care – Learning Disabilities website. Some of their initial findings about the complex nature of participants' cultural identities can be explored in a video from a recent conference presentation and a slideshow.
An overview of the project, and the story of the development of the Tools for Talking, is also available in a slideshow presentation.
