No abstract

MiData provides a clinician-friendly system of evaluating first-episode psychosis services but requires further refinement and dedicated resources to improve completion rates. This method of collecting routine data is of use to clinicians, managers, health service researchers and commissioners and potentially it may enable naturalistic comparisons between different models of care.

We asked psychologists how they were using telephone and video calls to support people with learning disabilities and autism, since the Covid-19 lockdown. In all, 95 psychologists answered our questions. Most (80 per cent) psychologists were using telephone to offer support. A little more than half (58 per cent) were using video calls to offer support. Psychologists talked about some problems offering support using video calls, like problems with computers and internet, service users finding it hard to use the video calls, and making sure people felt comfortable talking over video. Psychologists said that using video calls can help to keep in touch and offer support to people with learning disabilities and autism when we cannot meet face to face.

Although sexuality is a fundamental aspect of human existence, public attitudes towards the sexuality of people with intellectual disabilities may vary. In particular, different ethnic communities may have different perspectives. These differing perspectives may impact on the opportunities and support available for people with intellectual disabilities to express sexuality within ‘normalized’ life experiences. Despite the South Asian population being one of the largest minority ethnic groups residing within the UK, few studies have aimed to understand how South Asian attitudes towards the sexuality of people with intellectual disabilities may differ from White Western perspectives. This study used an online questionnaire to investigate public attitudes towards the sexuality of people with intellectual disabilities within a UK sample (n = 331). Attitudes between people from White Western (n = 184) and South Asian backgrounds (n = 147) were compared with the use of five scales measuring attitudes towards sexuality. Whilst overall attitudes appeared to be generally positive, South Asian participants were found to have significantly more negative attitudes towards the sexual control and sexual rights of people with intellectual disabilities compared to White Westerners. These differences remained significant even after factors known to influence such attitudes were taken into consideration. These findings implicate the need to develop culturally sensitive interventions to improve knowledge and awareness of sexual needs of people with intellectual disabilities. This paper discusses these implications further, the limitations of the present study and suggested directions for future research.