Keeping clean
How to read the stories

Keeping clean

Young people with learning disabilities experience the same milestones in their development as their non-disabled peers. But they may experience much greater difficulty in achieving adult status, for example remaining financially dependent on parents well into adulthood. Other issues such as physical assistance needed with personal care can mean that a young disabled person takes more time and support to live independently.

Making choices

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.

For example, the promotion of ‘choice’ around health and personal hygiene sometimes appears to set no limits on what is safe, reasonable and socially acceptable. If people do not understand the importance of brushing teeth to avoid unnecessary dental treatment, or of proper washing to avoid possible skin infection or food poisoning, they may neglect their personal care. Poor personal hygiene may have serious consequences, not only for general health, but also for the individual’s acceptance in local community activities and possibly for access to employment.

It should never be assumed that neglect of personal care, wearing dirty or inappropriate clothes or poor diet are automatically informed ‘choices’. We all have a responsibility to encourage healthy lifestyles and greater awareness about the importance of personal care.

Talking about personal care can be very difficult, but allowing people to attend to hygiene routines as they choose and without explanation and encouragement could be considered neglectful and overlooks the dismal personal and health outcomes they will have to face and the real risk of social exclusion.

How to read the stories

There is no right or wrong way to read the stories.

Some people are not used to reading stories. Start at the beginning and read the story in each picture. Encourage the reader to move through the pages at their own pace.
Encourage the person to tell the story in their own words. You will discover what they think is happening, what they already know, and how they feel. If you are using the pictures to help explain a procedure to someone, you may need to describe or clarify the actions being shown in each picture to help them understand. Try not to challenge the reader(s) or suggest their ideas are wrong.
Some pictures may be more difficult to understand. It can help to prompt the people you are supporting, for example:
• Who do you think that is?
• What is happening?
• How is he or she feeling?
• Do you feel like that? Has it happened to you/ your friend/ your family?
Allow people enough time to follow the pictures at their own pace. Allow time for discussion of each picture.
Some people may benefit from reading the larger story from which the extract has been taken. This will allow them to explore their feelings and experiences in more depth. To buy the complete book, follow the link to the bookshop that appears at the end of the story.