This module will provide students with an in-depth understanding of service issues in intellectual and developmental disabilities and forensic issues, including an understanding of normalisation/Social Role Valorisation (and race/gender issues), deinstitutionalisation, current services for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including forensic services. Students will learn about the Mental Health Act and other relevant legislation, the role of the police, courts, prisons, and probation. They will consider how to assess quality of care, quality of life and service user views, and will examine advocacy and self-advocacy movements, organisational issues and interventions to improve quality of life and care.
Total contact hours: 25
Private study hours: 75
Total study hours: 100
Autumn and Spring
100% coursework comprising:
Essay (3000 words) – 80%
Online quiz (1 hour) – 20%
Brown, H. and Smith, H. (1992) Normalisation: A Reader for the Nineties. London: Routledge.
Care Services Improvement Partnership. (2007). Positive Practice Positive Outcomes: A handbook for professionals in the Criminal Justice System working with offenders with learning disabilities. Available from:
www.valuingpeople.gov.uk/echo/filedownload.jsp?action=dFile&key=2816
Carr, A. et al (2007). The handbook of intellectual disability and clinical psychology practice. London, Routledge.
Department of Health. (2009). The Bradley Report: Lord Bradley's review of people with mental health problems or learning disabilities in the criminal justice system. Available from:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_098698.pdf
Emerson, E., McGill, P. and Mansell, J. (1994) Severe Learning Disabilities and Challenging Behaviours: Designing High Quality Services. London: Chapman and Hall.
Emerson , E., Hatton, C., Dickson, K, Gone, R., Caine A. & Bromley, J., (2012). Clinical Psychology and People with Intellectual Disabilities. 2nd edition. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Lindsay, W.R., Taylor, J.L, Sturmey, P. (2004). Offenders with Developmental Disabilities. West Sussex: Wiley.
Mansell, J. and Ericsson, K. (1996) Deinstitutionalization and Community Living: Intellectual Disability Services in Britain, Scandinavia and U.S.A. London: Chapman and Hall.
Tsakanikos, E. & McCarthy, J. (2014). Handbook of Psychopathology in Intellectual Disability: Research, Practice & Policy. New York: Springer.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to
• Demonstrate advanced understanding and critical awareness of the historical context of intellectual disability services, including the eugenics era
• Show in-depth and systematic understanding of theories and practice that relate to institutional care
• Discuss the process and progress of the deinstitutionalisation movement in Western countries at an in-depth and critical level, including demonstrating the ability to provide original insights
• Demonstrate advanced scholarship in understanding theories of normalisation and social role valorisation
• Demonstrate in-depth understanding of complex concepts relating to the quality of care and quality of life, including the intricacies of their interrelationships
• State and critically evaluate how to measure and improve quality of care and quality of life, including demonstrating the ability to make novel observations
• Discuss and critically analyse the Mental Health Act & other relevant complex legislation
• Demonstrate critical and in-depth understanding of government policy regarding intellectual and developmental disabilities and forensic services in the UK, including being able to identify key policy issues and suggest policy improvements that would positively impact on people with intellectual and developmental disabilities
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
• Use the research literature to gather in-depth information
• Critically interrogate government policy documents
• Integrate in-depth knowledge from different sources including their own experience
• Relate theory to practice in a critical manner
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