We are all having to adapt and learn quickly during the coronavirus pandemic. For supporters and professionals, sharing information, resources and learning is vital to ensuring that people with learning disabilities and autism receive the best possible care and support in these challenging times.
Here we share links to some useful webinar recordings.
Picture stories about coronavirus - Beyond Words Chair and Founder Baroness Hollins talks about the need behind our new resources for people with learning disabilities.
Having someone with an intellectual (learning) disability or an autistic child at home during coronavirus is a real blessing and an invitation to spend our days more mindfully but creating a new shared rhythm may take families like mine a little longer.
Baroness Hollins recently invited co-author [of The Book Club] and book club volunteer Julie Anderson to the House of Lords, together with Beyond Words book club co-ordinator Sue Carmichael.
By her own admission, Julie was wary of getting involved with Beyond Words book clubs, because, "I thought it was going to be like school – so, writing, reading and arithmetic. I did not enjoy school." Yet here, Julie writes a brief blog entry (perhaps the first of many) about her recent visit to London as a co-author.
Loneliness is a serious problem in our society, particularly for people with learning disabilities, but joining a book club can greatly improve wellbeing and happiness. Our newest wordless story, The Book Club, will showcase the benefits of belonging to a book club and to encourage people to try one for themselves.
Adults with learning disabilities are 10 times more likely to have serious sight problems than other people, yet research shows that 50% of adults with learning disabilities haven’t had a sight test for at least two years.
Most will need extra support to recognise and report changes in their vision, and also to access the eye care services to which they are entitled. For this reason, we teamed up with disability and sight loss charity SeeAbility to launch a new resource, carefully designed to open up conversations, improve awareness and understanding, and support informed decision-making around eye health.
Children with learning disabilities are four times more likely to have mental health problems than their mainstream peers (Emerson and Hatton, 2007), while the UK Government’s 2017 Green Paper, Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision, states that over half of all mental health problems emerge before the age of 14 years. It is critical to identify and address areas of social, emotional and mental health need for these children and young people as early as possible.
