‘Are you allowed to say that?’ using video materials to provide accessible information about psychology services

Abstract

The White Paper 'Valuing People' [Department of Health (DoH) (2001) Valuing people: a new strategy for learning disability for the 21st century, London, HMSO]indicates that people with a learning disability need to become more actively involved in the decisions that affect their lives. This includes being offered active choices in access to health services. Psychologists, therefore, need to think about how to give people with learning disabilities enough relevant information in an accessible way to promote informed consent to treatment. This study investigates how much information adults with mild and moderate learning disabilities understand about psychology services, before and after watching a video designed to explain what seeing a psychologist entails. The video was shown to 19 participants at a local Social Education Centre. Participants' knowledge increased significantly after watching the video. They were able to answer questions about its content better when asked after short sections of the video when presented, rather than after an uninterrupted presentation.

Informed consent to healthcare interventions in people with learning disabilities – an integrative review

“…With regard to health interventions, people with LD may not perceive that they are able to make a decision that does not match that of their healthcare professional. Dunn et al. (2006) reinforce these findings, with only two out of 19 of their participants understanding that they could decide whether they continued seeing a psychologist.…”

Is Easy Read information really easier to read?

“…Each leaflet page contained just one concept, as studies had found that dividing information in segments was helpful (Strydom & Hall ; Dunn et al . ).…”

14. Methodological challenges

“…Thus, some researchers seek to measure participants' ability to give informed consent, for example, Jones and Stenfert Kroese (2007) report using a procedure adapted from Arsott et al (1999) Dunn et al, 2006) found that capacity to consent increased as the decision-making task was simplified by presenting information as separate elements rather than in uninterrupted form. Dunn et al (2006) similarly used simplification into key elements alongside delivering information in video format with illustrative scenes and voice-over summary, which 'may have helped participants to anchor knowledge into visual images recalled from the video' (p.218).…”