Recently, Dame Barbara Windsor and her husband Scott Mitchell publicly modelled a deliberate and careful decision about ‘who to tell, how and when?’ about a diagnosis of dementia. In Dame Windsor’s case, over three years after receiving the initial diagnosis and sharing it in closer circles, the couple decided to tell the public via an interview with The Sun.  (more…)

This week it is Learning Disability Week (18^th – 24^th June, 2018), and we are standing together with individuals, families, schools, colleges, and many other organisations across the country to speak up for the rights and needs of people with a learning disability.

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Dr Natalie Kemp CPsychol, is an active member of the HOP-MHP stakeholder group. She identifies as a clinical psychologist in recovery from mental ill health. In October 2017, she set up the online peer support group in2gr8mentalhealth, which provides a space for different mental health professionals with lived experience to come together and share and explore their ‘dual identity’. (more…)

In research conducted at UCL and published last month in Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 67% of clinical psychology trainees who completed our survey considered themselves to have lived experience of a mental health problem.

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Paul Davies, Co-Chair

Katrina Scior, UCLUS Director, and Paul Davies, Self-Advocate working for the -Elfrida Society, welcomed everyone and shared the vision of UCLUS: to enhance our understanding of stigma and evidence based ways to challenge it  this through research. Katrina introduced work that demonstrates the multiple ways stigma affects people with intellectual disabilities and their families,  and made explicit the link between negative stereotypes, reduced opportunities, discrimination, and other negative outcomes.

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Katrina Scior

The session was chaired by Katrina Scior and Henry Clements, Director and Clinician Researcher with UCLUS respectively. In introducing the afternoon’s theme Katrina noted that having researched disability stigma for a number of years, their group has felt increasing discomfort about stigma colleagues with lived experience of mental health problems face and a general reluctance within the mental health professions to talk about our own vulnerabilities. Katrina asked the room “Is there a need for greater openness among the mental health workforce?”

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The Unit for Stigma Research (UCLUS) seeks to produce boundary crossing research that increases our understanding of stigma in relation to disability, mental health problems and dementia and informs the development of effective interventions designed to tackle stigma at all levels. (more…)

What do people with learning disabilities want in a partner?         

My PhD showed me that people with learning disabilities want to find love just like anyone else, that they value similar characteristics and attributes to the general population: a kind, affectionate and loving partner. However, traditionally desirable characteristics among people without learning disabilities, such as physical attractiveness and social status, were unimportant (Bates et al., 2016). To help more people with learning disabilities to find love, I have subsequently established a national network comprising both professionals and people with learning disabilities called ‘Supported Loving’ (https://www.choicesupport.org.uk/our-work/supported-loving-campaign). (more…)

Confession:

Ok, hands up! This blog post is not about intellectual disability per say, but more broadly about stigma experienced in a number of contexts by people with invisible illnesses (intellectual disabilities are not illnesses and they are not always invisible, but sometimes they are).

I have been moved to write about this exhibition challenging the stigma experienced by people with invisible illnesses which I happened to visit in August of this year. The event was ‘Sick!’, an art exhibition at Sun Pier house in Chatham in Kent.

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Individuals with intellectual disabilities are one of the most ostracised groups and face stigma, prejudice and significant obstacles that restrict their human rights (European Union Monitoring and Advocacy Programme, 2005). Often, people associated with the target individual are also subjected to stigmatisation, referred to as family stigma, courtesy stigma (Goffman, 1963) or associative stigma (Mehta & Farina, 1988). Related to these is the construct of affiliate stigma, which involves the internalisation of stigma by associates, such as family caregivers of individuals with intellectual disabilities

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