You are here
Making decisions
Parents and staff supporting people with learning disabilities are often reminded of the importance of encouraging them to make individual choices and decisions on all aspects of their everyday lives. Services may put ‘the right to choose how you live your life’ as their key objective for all service users. But the problem in promoting a blanket policy towards individual choice is that it can be very difficult to be clear about which choices you are referring to.
We all have individual preferences about how we wish to live our lives. Choosing between coffee or tea, the colour of the clothes we wear, our hair style and our friends are not controversial decisions. But other choices may have longer term consequences. It is important to understand when advice and support may be necessary to avoid the wrong choices being made. The individual concerned may not understand the consequences of his or her choice. Sometime the ‘right to choose’ may actually put a vulnerable person at risk and mean that families and other supporters are (with good intentions) failing to exercise a duty of care.
Speaking up groups
‘Speaking up groups’ are good starting points for people who want to learn the skills of speaking up. This is especially important for people who have been denied the right to be involved in the decisions made about their own lives. Groups can be contacted through organisations such as People First.
Getting good services
It is wrong to discriminate against anybody for any reason.
People with learning disabilities may not know that they should have equal rights to services and the right to be treated with respect. Some people in society do not treat others with respect, especially if they see them as being different from themselves. It’s important for people to speak up so that they can change how services are planned and delivered to meet their needs. People may be discriminated against because they have learning disabilities. Discrimination can also happen when a service user is from a different ethnic group to the person providing the service. The combination of having a learning disability and being from an ethnic minority group feels like a ‘double whammy’. It can make it even more difficult to get a good service.
Remember that sometimes discrimination can happen because of a misunderstanding. It is important that people don’t jump to the conclusion that they are being discriminated against. Remember that some service providers are not culturally competent.
People can speak up for themselves and do not just have to tolerate discriminatory behaviour. It is important for people to understand that not only do they have a voice and the right to be heard, but they also have a choice about how they want to be treated.
Being assertive
Getting active, taking up new hobbies or relearning old ones, and learning ways to relax and treat themselves well, can help increase a person’s mental wellbeing and begin to change the way they think about their life. Learning new skills, like budgeting or work skills, can build self-esteem and also support independence
Groups can engage in drama and role play to explore how people relate to one another. Role play can offer people the opportunity to try out ways of responding to different situations. This can be like a rehearsal so that it becomes easier to be assertive in real situations.
Communication tools
We use our voices to speak but communicate with our whole body. To empower people with intellectual disabilities, we need to give them the signs and symbols vocabulary to introduce their own topics into the conversation – not just to make choices about their needs and wants.
Books Beyond Words are an example of a different way in which verbal communication can be augmented. Many people with learning disabilities use signs or symbols to augment or substitute for spoken language (e.g. Makaton or Bliss in the UK).
People with learning disabilities need to communicate with each other and with the wider community, just as we all do – not just in timetabled communication sessions.
An augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system does not result in instant communication any more than providing a piano results in an instant musician.
It takes a long time for a person to become competent with an AAC system. A long-term support and development programme is essential, and the supporter’s implementation of the agreed programme is crucial to its success.
For a small annual subscription fee you can unlock all of the stories in the app. To subscribe, click on the "Subscribe for access" button below and follow the instructions on screen. If you have already subscribed please log in with the username and password that you used to create your account.
