Suchergebnisse

Acknowledgements -- One year, one unit -- Learning disabled women in secure services -- Life on the unit -- Relationships on the locked ward -- Difficult women? -- Moving on : progression through services -- Intersections : making conclusions -- Index.

"What is life like for women with learning disabilities detained in a secure unit? This book presents a unique ethnographic study conducted in a contemporary institution in England. Rebecca Fish takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on both the social model of disability and intersectional feminist methodology, to explore the reasons why the women were placed in the unit, as well their experiences of day-to-day life as played out through relationships with staff and other residents. She raises important questions about the purpose of such units and the services they offer. Through making the women's voices heard, this book presents their experiences and unique perspectives on topics such as seclusion, restraint, and resistance. Exploring how the ever present power disparity works to regulate women's behaviour, the book shows how institutional responses replicate?women's?bad experiences from?the past, and how women's responses are seen?as pathological.?It demonstrates that women are not passive recipients of care,?but?shape?their own identity and futures, sometimes by resisting the norms expected of them (within allowed limits) and sometimes by transgressing the rules.? These insights thus challenge traditional institutional accounts of gender, learning disability and deviance and highlight areas for reform in policy, practice, methodology, and social theory. This groundbreaking book will be of interest to scholars, students, policy-makers and advocates working in the fields of learning disability and disability studies more widely, gender studies and sociology."--Provided by publisher

In 2011, I spent 11 months doing ethnographic fieldwork for my PhD research where I studied three locked wards on a National Health Service forensic unit for women with learning disabilities. I wanted to find out how the service could be improved for women. My aim was to involve the participants in the study and allow them to tell me what was important to them. I found that using ethnography greatly benefited the project, allowing me to spend time with women and staff to explain the project, and to discuss day-to-day events as they happened rather than retrospectively. I found that women's behavior was extremely regulated and that the institutional responses to "bad" behavior sometimes replicated their bad experiences from the past. Women's aggression was seen as pathological and they were described as interpersonally manipulative and complex. However, the women had clear ideas about their future and how to progress through the service. This case study explains the process I followed, including the ethical procedures and how I gained access.

AbstractBackgroundThe move to community support for all people with intellectual disabilities is an aspiration with international significance. In this article, we draw on rich accounts from women with intellectual disabilities detained under the Mental Health Act (E&W) 1983 and staff at an National Health Service secure setting in England to explore how "moving on" is defined and perceived.MethodsThe study reports on an ethnographic study using the field‐notes and the 26 semi‐structured interviews with detained women and staff on three wards.ResultsWe first explore staff conceptions of moving on, which include behavioural change and utilizing coping strategies. Then, we discuss the areas of analysis that women discussed: taking back responsibility, success in arranged relationships, acceptance of regime and resistance to progression.ConclusionThe concepts of moving on were not determined by the women but by the service. We recommend further research which explores women's own rehabilitation requirements.

PurposeThis study seeks to explore the content analysis of two qualitative studies looking at experiences of staff working with clients who self‐harm. One of the groups work with women clients, and the other works with men. Both groups of staff in this study work with people with mild learning disabilities who self‐harm. The sample is taken from nurses working in both medium security and low security in the UK.Design/methodology/approachThe staff were interviewed using semi‐structured interviews and had considerable control over the direction of the interview.FindingsAlthough some allowances should be made because the two groups worked in different services, there were some interesting variations in the themes of the results. The two groups of staff based their discussions on five central themes: types of self‐harm, perceived reasons for self‐harm, staff personal responses, client treatment options, and staff support.Practical implicationsStaff reported experiencing strong emotional responses to incidents of self‐harm. Types of behaviour tended to vary between men and women. Staff asked for more training and time for support groups to meet. Some staff (particularly those working with women) think that self‐harm should be allowed within reason.Originality/valueThis research will be valuable to many types of residential service where clients may use self‐harm as a coping strategy. The authors recommend services adopting a harm minimisation approach to self‐harm.

Background  This paper details the experiences of nine people with mild/moderate intellectual disability who self injure; looking beyond the clinical presentations in an attempt to capture the perceptions these people have of their care in a medium secure unit.Methods  A phenomenological approach was used, and during in‐depth interviews, the participants gave rich descriptions of their experiences of self‐injury.Results  The analysis of the interviews revealed four main themes; coping strategies, staff and the organizational response – therapeutic communication, close observation and looking to the future. As a coping strategy, self‐injury was seen as an effective means of reducing distress – there were unique and common reasons for this distress. Common themes relating to the actions and reactions of health professionals and the organizational response were evident within all accounts.Conclusions  The theoretical and clinical implications for service users are discussed.