adults with Down's

A company behind a non-profit actor training academy and casting agency for neurodivergent actors proposes new guidelines to make film and television more inclusive.

Dame Judi Dench is one of the expert judges who will reveal the winners of the international ‘My Perspective’ competition at a prestigious ceremony in London later this month.

The BBC has announced it is to make a “groundbreaking” programme in which people with learning disabilities from autism and Tourette’s to ADHD and Down’s Syndrome attempt to find jobs.

Punk band PKN, whose members all have Down’s syndrome or autism are to represent Finland at the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest.

A man with learning disabilities has called on the Football Association (FA) and Premier League club West Ham United to act over an alleged incident where fans chanted terms that are offensive to people with learning disabilities.

Since joining a new service four years ago, Clare Stubley’s life has taken off – including securing a job, taking up hobbies and achieving lifelong ambitions. Guy Page reports.

Treat Me Right! started out providing learning disability training for healthcare staff in an NHS Trust, but has since snowballed, driven forward in part by a man with Down’s syndrome. Editor Dan Parton reports:  
When John Keavney, who has Down’s syndrome, collapsed at his home with breathing difficulties in 2009, he was rushed to hospital. He remained there for four weeks and found his experience difficult, confusing and sometimes upsetting. But once he recovered, Keavney resolved to put his experiences to good use and improve the situation for other people with learning disabilities who have to go into hospital.
He became an active member of the Treat Me Right! campaign, and now delivers training to health professionals – from doctors and nurses to midwives, students and junior doctors – and much more at his local NHS Trust in Ealing. As part of the Treat Me Right! team, Keavney works alongside Elsa Morris and delivers up to four learning disability awareness courses each month at Ealing Hospital and Ealing Community Health Services, to groups of between six and 15 people. He talks about his experiences and how healthcare professionals can improve their treatment of people with learning disabilities.

In the Know – Fact sheet 1: Dementia and people with learning difficulties – some basic problems
This clear, accessible pack will be of particular interest to direct care staff, carers and other practitioners in the care field. This clear, accessible pack will be of particular interest to direct care staff, carers, nurses, and other practitioners in the care fieldIn the Know has been developed to try and help anyone trying to support a person with learning disabilities who develops dementia. The pack contains a series of easily accessible, straightforward, practical and realistic guidance to help anyone supporting someone with learning disabilities and dementia to provide good quality care. It is arranged in three sections: background, factsheets and tools. Each of these sections is designed to be used alone or together with other parts of the pack. The factsheet cover the following: dementia and people with learning disabilities; getting a diagnosis; communicating with people with dementia; life story work; challenging behaviour; developing suitable environments; supporting people to eat well; the later stages; supporting people to eat well; the later stages; supporting the friends and peers of the person with dementiaThe tools include: brain diagram; alert signs; differential diagnosis chart; an example of a diagnostic care pathway; dos and don'ts; charter for good practice in life story work; strategies to deal with effectively with challenging behaviour.The pack is the result of many years of research and practice by a multidisciplinary group of academic researchers, trainers and practitioners working with people with learning disabilities who develop dementia, and with their staff, family and friends.To buy you copy of In the Know click here 

The chief executive of Down’s Syndrome UK has expressed her shock and sadness about the case in Australia of a baby with Down’s syndrome being abandoned by her adoptive parents, apparently because of his disability.

A 9-year-old girl from Cornwall has written her first book, which aims to help other children who become a sibling to a child with Down’s syndrome.