Gaining Feedback from People with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Introduction: Person-centred approaches and service user involvement are integral to occupational therapy, but evidence is lacking about how occupational therapists working in the field of learning disabilities gather feedback from service users. Method: This research aimed to explore how members of the College of Occupational Therapists Specialist Section — People with Learning Disabilities gathered feedback from their service users. Questionnaires were completed by 70 occupational therapists and 12 of them participated in semi-structured interviews. Findings: The occupational therapists were passionate about service user feedback, but they were likely to use informal methods rather than established methods with a more robust evidence base. Despite research indicating greater potential for bias when asking people with learning disabilities for feedback, almost half the participants did not take measures to reduce this. The interviews suggest that this is due to service pressures, lack of confidence and the complexity of service users' needs. Conclusion: Occupational therapists need to do more to gain feedback from people with learning disabilities. Further research is required to establish the most effective way of doing this.

Occupational therapy for adults with intellectual disabilities and sensory processing challenges: a Delphi study exploring practice within acute assessment and treatment units

“…This supports findings elsewhere in the literature, with mental health service users and staff agreeing a variety of tools are needed to successfully implement sensory interventions (Machingura, 2021) and a need for more suitable sensory assessments identified by McGill and Breen (2020). Challenges around gaining views of service users and using systematic tools to support this also corroborate previous study findings, where therapists used mainly informal techniques to gather feedback (Ball and Shanks, 2012).…”

Do health consultations for people with learning disabilities meet expectations? A narrative literature review

“…lack of information about services; poor transition to adult services; insufficient referral to specialist services; insufficient provision of translators; insufficient involvement of patients in health care. Recommendations: Extra support needed for carers; support needed for ethnic minority and non-English-speaking families; improve referral pathways to specialist services; improve the uptake of health checks; make more reasonable adjustments; ensure health staff training on learning disabilities issues Rich data; numbers good for qualitative study theme agreement measured between analysts; findings supported by quotations Ball and Shanks (2012 Process explained in sufficient detail to provide transparency and a rationale for choices made. This appears to be a useful tool that can be shared between all services, and particularly for mental health needs identification, but needs further validation studies Perry et al (2014).…”

“…In discussions on annual health checks, which health professionals thought were effective, a barrier to effectiveness was identified as nonattendance (Chapman, 2012). Despite the vagaries of less formal service evaluation (Ball & Shanks, 2012), there are clear, evidence-based findings to inform practice, including the combined focus group and individual interview study that identified preferences for being included in the consultation, having preparation beforehand, and being given demonstrations of any examinations (Wullink, Veldhuijzen, Lantman-de Valk, Metsemakers, & Dinant, 2009). Service user views have often been combined with those of their carers or with other stakeholders (Bell, 2012;Gates, 2011;Perry et al, 2014).…”

Gathering meaningful service user feedback regarding a community forensic service

“…Baker (2003) found this could lead to individuals being over generous with praise and additionally vulnerable to leading questions. In a review of feedback into a specific area of health care provision, only 11 out of 70 Occupational Therapists had been able to give individuals the opportunity to feedback anonymously and nine out of 70 respondents had provided an independent facilitator (Ball and Shanks, 2012). Baker et al (2010) identified that up to 90 per cent of people with intellectual disabilities have difficulties with verbal communication.…”

“…It also has the benefit of service users being able to give global feedback on the whole service once rather than on multiple occasions. This is often received with mixed views; whilst it may be more effective at influencing changes, unique aspects of individual services may not be fully explored (Ball and Shanks, 2012).…”