University of Kent

A celebratory seminar entitled "Learning Disability: Past Present and Future" was held on 13 September to recognise the contribution made by Jim Mansell to learning disability during his 40 year career. The seminar marked Jim’s retirement from the University and from the Directorship of the Tizard Centre. Speakers included eminent academics from the UK and Australia and senior representatives of social care services and charities.  The seminar also provided an opportunity for over 70 colleagues or former students of Jim to wish him a happy retirement. Despite his retirement Jim continues to be active in research and advisory activities.

Photos by Nick Brawn

The study is being led by Glynis Murphy, Professor of Clinical Psychology & Learning Disability at the University of Kent’sTizard Centre and Dr Peter Langdon of Norwich Medical School at UEA.

Dr Langdon commented: ‘Adults with Asperger Syndrome and high functioning autism are more likely to suffer from anxiety disorders which leads to a significant loss of quality life – both for those with autism and those who care for them. ‘There is evidence that psychological therapies are an effective treatment for anxiety disorders, but there is little evidence that these therapies are effective for people with autistic spectrum disorders, who also suffer from anxiety disorders; this study will help address this gap within the evidence base.’

To find out more, please contact Professor Glynis Murphy at the Tizard Centre, University of Kent (telephone 01227 827758 or email G.H.Murphy@kent.ac.uk or Dr Peter Langdon at UEA (01603 593599 or P.Langdon@uea.ac.uk

Julie Beadle-Brown has recently returned from Budapest where she was leading a team of international experts to deliver the first week of a two week Leadership development programme focusing on developing community based alternatives to institutional services for people with intellectual (learning) disabilities  in Central and Eastern Europe. The event was part of the Public Policy Executive Programme at the Central European University in Budapest and was funded by the Open Society Mental Health Initiative. Julie was joined by Professor Steve Eidelman, Nancy Weiss and Michael Smull from the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities at the University of Delaware, as well as by CEU faculty Charles Jokay , Tom Lynch and Thilo Bodenstein, legal consultant  Camilla Parker , Professor Borka Teodorovic from Croatia, John Ockenden from United Response in the UK, Senada Halilovic, a self-advocate from Croatia and a number of postgraduate students, including Agnes Turnpenny from the Tizard Centre.

Participants on the programme came from a variety of backgrounds including government officials, senior staff from service providing organisations, social workers, and those who are working internationally to try and bring about change for people with disabilities.  Participants heard presentations from faculty and then worked in small groups to discuss the situation in their country, using the DECLOC recommendations as a framework for discussion. The aim of the first week was to help participants map the situation in their own countries, identify the obstacles to, and the opportunities for change, develop an action plan and consider what they needed to help them lead change. Participants watched videos both of institutional provision and of good examples of person-centred services and heard how to help staff think in person-centred ways, as well as how to support people with all levels of learning disability to live a good life in the community.

Many people will have seen the footage of appalling abuse of people with learning disabilities on Tuesday’s Panorama programme. Emeritus Professor Jim Mansell, former Director of the Tizard Centre made a central contribution to the programme, condemning the abuse and arguing for the closure of similar units. The programme has generated extensive media coverage. Jim Mansell, himself, has discussed its implications in a Guardian Online article. Tizard co-directors Glynis Murphy and Peter McGill provide their own comments here. Julie Beadle-Brown also responded with a brief statement. Staff of the Tizard Centre have extensive links with the Challenging Behaviour Foundation, a charity providing support for the families of people with learning disabilities and, through the National Strategy Group on Challenging Behaviour, campaigning for improved services. The Tizard Centre also runs courses to train staff in the skills they need to work effectively and humanely with people with learning disabilities whose behaviour is described as challenging.

Paraskevi Triantafyllopoulou (Vivi), PhD student at the Tizard is currently working with Prof Glynis Murphy and Peter McGill on a project regarding sleep disturbance in adults with intellectual disability. A postal survey is being conducted examining sleep, challenging behaviour and the functioning ability of adults with ID. They are hoping to identify specific sleep problems in this group and then to implement behavioural and melatonin interventions to ascertain which type of intervention is the most effective and whether sleep treatment will have a beneficial effect on people's challenging behaviour.

Awesome Lin Lady Melville has endowed a series of prizes for Tizard Students. Four prizes will be awarded annually in recognition of exceptional achievement or effort.

"We are delighted by this development. Such prizes are common in disciplines like Medicine but much less common in our area of work. They will act both as an incentive and as a reward for outstanding student performance" commented new Directors, Glynis Murphy and Peter McGill.

The first prizes will be presented at the Tizard Annual Lecture 23rd March 2012.

The results of this study have been recently published in the American Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (http://www.aaiddjournals.org/toc/ajmr/116/1).

Working with colleagues in Texas, California, Wisconsin and Illinois, Paul Langthorne (P.Langthorne@hotmail.com) and Peter McGill (P.McGill@kent.ac.uk) have examined the function of challenging behaviour in children with Fragile X Syndrome. Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited cause of intellectual and developmental disability. The influence of environmental variables on behaviours associated with the syndrome has received only scant attention. The current study (carried out while Paul was a PhD student at Tizard) explored the function served by problem behaviour in fragile X syndrome by using experimental functional analysis methodology with 8 children with fragile X. No child met criteria for attention-maintained problem behaviour, 5 children met criteria for escape-maintained problem behaviour, and 4 children met criteria for tangible-maintained problem behaviour. Results are discussed and compared with previous findings on the function of problem behaviour in fragile X syndrome, and implications for intervention are discussed.

Following the retirement of Prof Jim Mansell at Christmas 2010,  Peter McGill and Prof Glynis Murphy are the new co-directors of the Tizard Centre.  

Jim Mansell, who started the Tizard Centre, has worked in the field of intellectual disability since the early 1970s, and he joined the University of Kent in 1983. He has made an enormous contribution to the field, in particular to the movement from institutional to community based services for people with intellectual disabilities, both in the UK and in Europe and Australia, as well as to our understanding of what is needed to help people with intellectual disabilities to have a good life.  He has been made Emeritus professor at Kent and will continue his research into the situation of people with profound and multiple disabilities, and the implementation of person-centred approaches such as active support.  

The new co-directors are both well known in the intellectual disability field and have been colleagues of Jim’s for many years. Glynis Murphy first joined the Tizard Centre in 1993 and, after a spell at the University of Lancaster, returned as Professor of Clinical Psychology and Learning Disability in 2006. She is co-editor of a leading academic journal, JARID, and President of IASSID, the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities. Peter McGill joined the Centre in 1986 and was director from 1999 to 2004. He was appointed Reader in Clinical Psychology of Learning Disability in 2009. Glynis and Peter commented: “We wish Jim well in his (semi) retirement . As the first director of the Tizard Centre he will be missed greatly. We look forward to building on the solid foundations that he has left.”

A new report on research commissioned by the Department of Health has just been published. The report, by Peter McGill in collaboration with the Challenging Behaviour Foundation, reviews the success of strategies for commissioning services for adults with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour. It recommends national and local action to strengthen the capacity of local services. The report can be downloaded here, with a summary here.