Socially valid outcomes of intervention for people with mental retardation and challenging behaviour : a preliminary descrptive analysis of the views of different stakeholders.

Potentially salient outcomes of intervention for challenging behavior shown by people with mental retardation (MR) were identified by focus groups and through a literature review. Items generated by this process were subsequently rated by 150 respondents from seven stakeholder groups: 28 people with MR, 9 parents of people with MR, 22 clinical psychologists, 7 psychiatrists, 31 nurses, 33 managers, and 20 direct support workers. Results indicated that reduction in the severity of challenging behavior was considered the most important outcome of intervention for a child/young adult living with his or her family by four of the seven stakeholder groups; reduction in the severity of challenging behavior was considered the most important outcome of intervention for an adult living in a community-based group home by three of the seven stakeholder groups; alternative outcomes considered to be the most important by stakeholder groups included increased friendships and relationships, changes in the perceptions of individuals by others, learning of alternative ways of getting needs met, increased control, and empowerment; there were moderate levels of agreement on the relative importance of outcomes between individual members of stakeholder groups who did not have MR; there were high levels of agreement on the relative importance of outcomes between stakeholder groups of people who did not have MR; and levels of agreement on the relative importance of outcomes between people with MR and members of all other stakeholder groups did not reach the level of statistical significance

From the Sacral to the Moral: Sleeping Practices, Household Worship and Confessional Cultures in Late Seventeenth-Century England

This article examines sleeping practices and their spiritual meanings in English society. Sleep is one of the most fundamental experiences of everyday life, and this article examines how its temporal and spatial dimensions were shaped by a wide range of confessional groups according to theologies of salvation and resurrection from 1660 to 1700. The practices, rituals and objects that surrounded and sanctified the bedside highlight distinctive forms of sleep-piety that were supported by shifts in the provision and use of domestic space, by the pastoral objectives of Church divines and dissenting ministers, and by a flourishing genre of published spiritual guides that promoted private household devotions. This comparative study of sleeping practices nuances existing historical narratives about the fragmented religious landscape of these years. Most importantly, however, it offers a justification of the centrality of pious sleeping routines to the everyday experience of devotional practice by tracing the ways in which religious beliefs were embodied through subjective physical performances of sleep