Children with Learning Disabilities and Mental Health Problems Barbara McIntosh

1. Children with Learning Disabilities and Mental Health Problems Barbara McIntosh

3. The BOND context Aims of BOND: Increase the contribution of the voluntary sector. Improve commissioning. Promote early intervention. Work with schools and services to promote well-being and resilience. There is a mixed picture across all sectors in the UK with an underinvestment in the voluntary sector and specialist services to meet the needs of children with learning disabilities. Commissioners in some areas do not have the right skill-set to develop the required services for this increasingly complex group of children.

4. BOND: Children with learning disabilities • Children with learning disabilities are the most common group to receive an SEN statement. • 1 in 5 children with learning disabilities have a mental health problem – 6 times the incidence compared to children without a learning disability (Emerson and Hatton). • This group are less likely to have access to support and specialist services. • Children with learning disabilities have a need for life-long support. • Transition to adult services is a major concern for parents due to inconsistent services across the UK.

5. Characteristics of children with learning disabilities • When assessing need, we must have an understanding of each child’s wider circumstances and the impact of significant social determinants, such as low income and poverty. • Children with learning disabilities are more likely to have: • Poor health. • More adverse life events. • A single parent family. • A parent with mental health problems. • Less social support. • Disadvantage at home.

6. Mental health and learning disabilities: The facts • Children with learning disabilities are: • 33 times more likely to have autism. • 8 times more likely to have ADHD. • 6 times more likely to have conduct disorders. • 4 times more likely to have emotional disorders. • 1.7 times more likely to have depression. • (The Mental Health of Children and Adolescents with Learning Disabilities in Britain; Emerson and Hatton 2007)

7. Why do children with learning disabilities have a high incidence of mental health problems? • An intellectual disability reduces a child’s capacity for finding creative and adaptive solutions to life’s challenges, which can make them vulnerable to developing mental health problems. • A link has been shown to exist between lower cognitive ability and vulnerability to mental health problems. • Children with learning disabilities are at risk of poverty and social disadvantage, and poor social conditions are linked to an increased risk of mental health issues. • The prevalence rate of mental health problems (particularly anxiety and depression) for children on the autistic spectrum is 68%. This may be caused by genetic predisposition. • (National Autistic Society – You Need to Know Report)

8. School: Challenges faced by children with learning disabilities, their families and teachers • Those with mild learning disabilities have high levels of school exclusion. • Consequences of exclusion include disruption to the child, school and family, and the cost of permanent exclusion to the public purse is approximately £65,000. • Over half of children with learning disabilities and autism have been bullied. • 74% of children with an SEN statement find lunch and break times frightening. • 60% of teachers feel they need more training to teach children with learning disabilities (School Report 2013 and Ambitious About Autism).

9. Sources of help: Where do parents turn to for support with their child’s mental health problems? • As a first source of help, parents turn to a range of professionals for support. • The following percentages show the most popular sources: • Teachers - 42 % • Special Education Personnel – 19% • CAMHS – 17% • G.P. / primary care – 16% • Paediatricians – 15% • (The Mental Health of Children and Adolescents with Learning Disabilities in Britain 2007)

10. BOND resources • BOND, with the help of Staffordshire primary and secondary school staff, is producing an information pack which includes a range of tools to support staff development across the statutory and voluntary sectors. • The pack includes a general introduction to mental health, in addition to: • Mental Health First Aid resource for those with learning disabilities. • Outline for a whole school approach to auditing. • NASS online resource / training programme for staff. • The Friends for Life Resilience programme, adapted for children with learning disabilities. • Resilience Framework and Boing Boing. • Person Centred Planning Pack. • Information from the Child Bereavement Trust, Relate, and NSPCC.

11. The Future • Supporting this group of children and young people is everyone’s business. • The policy framework includes: The Equality Act, Safeguarding, Every Child Matters, National Service Framework, and the Children and Families Bill. • We need to ensure that the Children and Families Bill is effectively implemented, including an assessment by education, health and social care, with a local offer. • Personal budgets will help with individualised support, stimulate the market and offer more choice. • Building resilience needs joint action from individuals, families, schools, the voluntary sector, the leisure sector and the wider community.

12. Delroy’s Story: In Business Delroy’s Plastics Delroy lives in Bristol and residential care home and receives two to one support from the Brandon Trust. Whilst developing his plan and thinking about how Delroy could be supported to work, his support team realised that one thing Delroy really liked to do was to tidy the plastic bottles up at his care home and recycling them. This led to a small idea about providing a recycling service. Contact was made with Keith Bates at FPLD in order to get some business advice and some help with moving this idea forward. After some discussions about test trading, a leaflet was designed offering a collection and recycling service and deliver around his local community. Although the area has an extensive recycling scheme, there is no plastic collection. People must go to bottle banks but this usually means storing a pile of empty milk bottle somewhere first.

13. Delroy’s Story The uptake was swift and very quickly, small round was formed. Delroy is supported to collect and recycle bottles from his local community and levies a small charge for the service. In doing so he has been supported to develop his own small business and providing an employment opportunity where previously he was seen as unlikely to work. As another of Delroy passions is to travel and experience trains and buses, he was supported to enjoy a weekend trip to London, experiencing the full range of tourist activities and enjoying a break that he had never experienced before. The in Business programme has supported Delroy to develop a business centred around his skills and interests that meets a local community ‘headache’ and offers him a chance to enjoy the fruits of his labour. In 2008, Delroy was shortlisted for the Awards for Excellence in Recycling and Waste Management. For more information please contact: Keith Bates, Head of Employment kbates@fpld.org.uk or 0779 605 3847 www.learningdisabilities.org.uk