Learning disabilities

[REEJOJOHN]

Can anyone let me know the scope in trying to be a physio specialising in learning disabilities and mental health?

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[gillarnett]

I specialise in LD not mental health. This is a stimulating and challenging area to work in. We need a good working knowledge of manual handling legislation and equipment to do risk assessments effectively. We work with a client group with varying levels of comprehension and communication so need to be creative in our problem solving and communication and pay attention to the communication style and the amount of information given in one go.

We work as part of a much wider team in cluding all people involved in a service-users care from families, carers to hospital staff.

In our service we do hydrotherapy and rebound therapy on a regular basis.

A lot of the work I do is with the profoundly multiply disabled people with altered muscle tone and body shapes so need a good overall knowledge of neuro.

I hope this helps

Gill

[BrummyShell]

Hi, I also work with LD patients from the profound clients with little to no communication and movement, to the highly active challenging behaviour clients.

This is a challenging area but extremely rewarding, we work as a multidisiciplinary team, we carry out rebound therapy, hydro, sensory stimulation and CPPM (change position and passive movements).

If this is an area you are interested in see if you can shadow some one already doing it, you need to be very adaptive, be able to advise on changing manual handling situations, and have the ability to communicate with people who cant always express themselves.

[REEJOJOHN]

Thank you very much...To know more on LD I have taken up a 6 month job within the nhs in a community team for learning disability as a LD physio
cheers to all

[Cleaver]

It's great to see motivated physios working with people with LD! I'm a Canadian physio and current masters epidemiology beginning my thesis. Although I don't have significant experience with this population, I've chosen a thesis subject that pertains to people with LD (we use the term intellectual disability in Canada). My project will address physical mobility limitations in adults (45 and older) with intellectual disability. I have yet to develop the exact research question, but I will most likely be trying to establish the prevalence and severity of mobility limitations in a community sample in southeastern Ontario.

Is there any advice that you would give for such a project? I too am looking for outcome measures, preferably a survey addressing physical mobility that has been validated in this population and can be completed by a proxy.

Any and all comments are welcome!
Shaun Cleaver, PT
Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada

[kedarmate]

Hi. I am doing my masters in Paediatric. Can anyone give some refrences with respect to hand function or graphomotor skills or cognitive impirments in either learning disability or slow learners. Any related articles would also be appreciated.

I would really appreciate ur time and effort.

I have been finding it actually impossible to get any leads in this aspect. I've searched as much sites and books as possible.

Plz help