Debate

Annual health checks for people with a learning disability are designed to encourage GP practices to identify undetected health conditions early in people with learning disability and autism, create a health plan and ensure the appropriateness of ongoing treatments such as psychotropic medications.

Finding activities for people with a learning disability or autism can be a challenge in busy lives and especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. This blog looks at activities and teaching tips that can benefit people, families, care staff, and organisations.

Social enterprise has played a significant role in the employment prospects of people with learning disabilities. We investigated how some of them have coped over the course of the pandemic. 

People with tic disorders were already facing stark mental health inequalities before the pandemic and recent research surveys shows that patients have noticed their tics worsening since the outbreak of the pandemic. 

"How do I tell you I'm autistic?" is a common question people ask themselves, having received a diagnosis. "How should I respond?" is an internal dilemma that sometimes runs through the mind of individuals when someone they know shares their condition with them. Here we consider these questions and more.

The use of drugs like stimulants, anti-depressants, and anti-psychotics has been increasing with children for several decades across the world. But how far do schools force or pressurise parents into medicating? Darren Devine reports.

Studies have revealed symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in around two thirds of autistic people. But are autism and ADHD symptoms of the same underlying condition? Academic Dr Simon Bignell has questioned whether autism and ADHD may be “one overarching disorder with a range of subtypes”

When the team behind the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) 5 redefined Asperger's Syndrome as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in 2013, it would spark a conflict that continues to rage. Here, Darren Devine speaks to one of the psychiatrists behind the controversial move.

Many people with autism and learning disabilities are being overlooked by research. Charities, researchers, and campaigners say current studies are skewed towards the more able end of the spectrum, which can leave the most severely impacted excluded. 

Darren Devine discusses how moving people from hospitals to community settings can be antithetical to the spirit of transforming care.