Learning Disability and Other Intellectual Impairments: Meeting Needs Throughout Health Services

Learning Disability and other Intellectual Impairments is the first book of its kind to explore the similarities and parallels between the needs of people with various types of intellectual impairments as they encounter health services. It not only looks at the shared issues from a bio-psycho-social perspective, but also discusses the transferable skills that a practitioner can develop working across these groups. It identifies the key skills and knowledge that professionals need in order to work with intellectually impaired patients whether they are in the hospital or at home.

Rather than just focusing on people with learning disabilities, this text attempts to break down barriers and look at some of the issues associated with care and treatment of people who have intellectual impairment for a variety of reasons, including acquired brain injury, dementia and long-term mental health issues where cognition has been affected. Learning Disability and other Intellectual Impairments is suitable for health care practitioners at all levels who work with people who have intellectual impairments in their work and who wish to further develop their skills and knowledge to care for this neglected client group.

Louise L. Clark is Lecturer in Intellectual Impairment and Learning Disability in The Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery at King's College London.

Professor Peter Griffiths is Director of England's National Nursing Research Unit at King's College London. He is deputy editor of the International Journal of Nursing Studies and an associate editor of the journal Evidence Based Nursing.