Understanding Intellectual Disability and Health

About us

Find out more about Intellectual Disability and what we do.

An understanding of the nature of intellectual disability is essential for health care professionals, who are required to support equal access to their services for all disabled people. This website is an ideal learning resource for medical, nursing and other healthcare students. Everyone working in healthcare will find valuable information here, with contributions from a wide range of authors.

Covid-19 information. This section contains links to resources on Covid-19 for people with intellectual disabilities and their families and carers, and also provides an opportunity for discussion pieces on different aspects of this topic. Please see https://www.herts.ac.uk/intellectualdisability/covid-19-information

Afghanistan crisis: Refugees with learning disabilities are at higher risk. Beyond Words have been preparing a refugee focused story for a while but now, in response to the crisis in Afghanistan, they have published a FREE short resource, to try and help those who need urgent support. Please see https://booksbeyondwords.co.uk/afghanistan

Students’ Contributions. This section provides opportunities for contributions prepared by students and others early in their careers. We are encouraging a variety of topics and formats, including dissertations, essays, poster presentations and other material prepared for external events, as well as various kinds of “pre-articles” which could eventually lead to full articles. Please see https://www.herts.ac.uk/intellectualdisability/students-contributions

Learning Disabilities & Bereavement Support. The UK Commission on Bereavement was on Twitter on 25 November 2021, in order to engage directly with people with learning disabilities, their families, carers and other professionals. This included a session from Beyond Words on the value of their imagery to help people to understand and to better communicate emotions and feelings around bereavement.

Learning Disability Week 2021. Kingston and St George’s, Faculty of Health, Social Care & Education, held a celebration event on 24 June. Recording is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh2ahjKLdgA&t=791s (Part 1, 70 mins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttIzy_QKoeQ (Part 2, 62 mins)