What is it about?
Groups can be a useful way to support people with mental health conditions. There are many groups which support people who hear voices, but we couldn't find any groups specifically for people with learning disabilities who hear voices. We decided to run a group for people with learning disabilities who hear voices. After the group had finished we interviewed people with learning disabilities, their family members, and the health professionals who work with them to find out what was good about the group and what we could improve for the future.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
People with learning disabilities really valued being able to access group-based support for their voice hearing. Those who attended said the group helped improve their use of coping strategies and their understanding of voice hearing, and they enjoyed being able to meet other people who also heard voices. Although this is a very small study we hope this work will help other services and health professionals to see the possible benefits (and pitfalls!) to running this sort of group.
Perspectives
For me this was a powerful piece of work to be involved in. It was a privilege to hear people's stories and to discover that before attending the group, some had no idea that anyone else in the world might also hear voices. It was not surprising that they often felt alone and confused. We also spoke with those who chose not to attend, which really opened our eyes to the barriers to attending a group for voice hearing, and helped us think about how we might address these barriers in the future to improve the accessibility and usefulness of our group. Although this is a very preliminary piece of work I felt encouraged that groups like this can be beneficial for people with learning disabilities who hear voices.
Miss Rose Tomlins
Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: ‘I didn't know other people existed who hear voices…’ - qualitative perceptions of a hearing voices group for people with learning disabilities, British Journal of Learning Disabilities, July 2015, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/bld.12138.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
