Self-directed Support: Personalisation, Choice and Control

Since the late 1990s, there has been a concerted policy drive across social care towards cash based modes of support and strategies to personalise services. Support for this shift was initiated by the disabled peoples’ movement, both in the UK and globally. Policies introducing direct payments in lieu of provided services have been secured gradually as a central plank of the campaign for independent living. Successive governments have promoted a shift towards personalisation as part of a wider focus to develop local care markets and to facilitate enhanced choice and control in service provision. In Scotland, this has been pursued through new legislation for self-directed support. The authors examine some of the key themes and debates emerging from the implementation of this policy. These include a look at the evolution of this concept and its development within the wider personalisation agenda, as well as the changing roles for users, carers, local authorities and service providers. The authors focus on the impact of change for front-line workers and reassess the progress of personalisation across the UK and in Europe during a time of widespread austerity and financial cuts. Written for professional and academic audiences Self-directed Support: Personalisation, Choice & Control will stimulate those wrestling with these themes from policy and professional perspectives and provide essential analysis for those studying health and social policy

Go for It! Supporting people with learning disabilities and / or Autistic Spectrum Disorders in Employment

This study, commissioned to inform The same as you? National Implementation Group, looked at what employment support there is in Scotland for people with learning disabilities and/or autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and identified good practice. The research surveyed providers of employment support, looked at the literature on best practice, gathered opinions about barriers and key issues, and explored experiences and views of supported employees, their families and employers

Prostitution is Cruelty and Abuse to Women and Children

Each day I rise to take up the truly good fight to stop the harm to women in prostitution. I long for complete liberation of all oppressed peoples. I passionately believe that the work I do to end prostitution is revolutionary. No one deserves to be used and abused, and that is the universal experience of prostituted women and children. It is also revolutionary work because my freedom as a woman is meaningless so long as some of us can be bought and sold. The giant sex industry grinds on, exploiting and enslaving women, while sexual liberals are well-paid by that industry to mock us with shallow concepts-concepts premised on never having heard the cries or experienced the terror of the victims of this monstrous institution

2016 President’s Messages

Monthly messages from Dr. Susan J. Hunter, University of Maine President to the University of Maine community

2015 President\u27s Messages

Monthly messages from Dr. Susan J. Hunter, University of Maine President to the University of Maine community

Using the TIDieR checklist to standardize the description of a functional strength training intervention for the upper limb after stroke

Background and Purpose: Published reports of intervention in randomized controlled trials are often poorly described. The Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist has been recently developed to improve the reporting of interventions. The aim of this article is to describe a therapy intervention used in the stroke rehabilitation trial, "Clinical Efficacy of Functional Strength Training for Upper Limb Motor Recovery Early After Stroke: Neural Correlates and Prognostic Indicators" (FAST-INdICATE), using TIDieR. Methods: The functional strength training intervention used in the FAST-INdICATE trial was described using TIDieR so that intervention can be replicated by both clinicians, who may implement it in practice, and researchers, who may deliver it in future research. The usefulness of TIDieR in the context of a complex stroke rehabilitation intervention was then discussed. Results and Discussion: The TIDieR checklist provided a systematic way of describing a treatment intervention used in a clinical trial of stroke rehabilitation. Clarification is needed regarding several aspects of the TIDieR checklist, including in which section to report about the development of the intervention in pilot studies, results of feasibility studies; overlap between training and procedures for assessing fidelity; and where to publish supplementary material so that it remains in the public domain. Summary: TIDieR is a systematic way of reporting the intervention delivered in a clinical trial of a complex intervention such as stroke rehabilitation. This approach may also have value for standardizing intervention in clinical practice. Video abstract is available for more insights from the authors (see Supplemental Digital Content 1, http://links.lww.com/JNPT/A131)