Job Posting: Program Manager & Clinical Supervisor - North Vancouver

FAMILY SERVICES of the NORTH SHORE

Counselling Services

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Position: Program Manager & Clinical Supervisor – Family Preservation and Family Support programs

Position #: 13-100

Reports to: Clinical Director

Location: North Vancouver office & Community

Closing Date: April 5, 2013

The Agency:

Family Services of the North Shore is an accredited, not-for-profit community based organization which provides counseling, education and support to those living or working in North & West Vancouver, Bowen Island and Lion’s Bay. Family Services of the North Shore also provides provincial wide programming in the prevention of eating disorders.

The Job:

This is a permanent, part-time, 21 hours per week, Wednesday – Friday management position in our Community Counselling program, providing both program management and clinical supervision for our Family Preservation and Family Support teams.

You will provide overall program management for our MCFD contract for these services as well as individual clinical and group supervision for the staff assigned to these programs. You will organize and supervise MCFD funded groups. You will participate in budgeting and maintain responsibility for your department’s budget. You will monitor contract program targets and ensure that all required reports are submitted.

You are responsible for all legal, ethical and safety issues related to the delivery of these programs as well as manage critical incidents and help to resolve difficult or sensitive issues. You will work closely with the Director of Clinical programs to ensure that any challenging situations are attended to appropriately.

You will work collectively with the other program managers as a clinical team and, with the Director of Clinical programs, work to ensure that the highest quality of clinical service is delivered to our clients. This is achieved through training, professional development opportunities and other avenues.

The Candidate:

The ideal candidate will:

• Have significant experience supervising clinical staff
• Have experience working with MCFD
• Be a seasoned clinician with experience working with a diverse client population
• Be prepared to take on a leadership role on Agency committees, community partners and in collaboration on clinical program projects under the direction of the Clinical Director.

The Qualifications:

The successful candidate will have a master’s degree in social work and be a Registered Social Worker (RSW) with a minimum of 5 years experience.

Experience and expertise working with individuals, couples and families impacted by substance abuse, relationship violence and mental health issues is also required.

Language proficiency in Farsi, Korean, Mandarin or Cantonese would be considered any asset as would experience working with First Nations People.

This position is dependent on external funding and any changes to that funding could adversely affect the viability of the position. This position also requires a minimum of one evening per week of work.

Please respond, in confidence, to:

Kathleen Whyte, Manager of Human Resources

Family Services of the North Shore

101-255 West 1^st Street

North Vancouver, B.C.V7M 3G8

whyte@familyservices.bc.ca

While we thank all applicants for their interest, only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Pathologizing the Human Condition: DSM-V Constructs More Labels for Human Behaviour

Normal behaviour, or mental illness?

A look at the new psychiatric guidelines that are pitting doctors against doctors

by Anne Kingston, March 19, 2013, Macleans.

Every parent of a preteen has been there: on the receiving end of sullen responses, bursts of frustration or anger, even public tantrums that summon the fear that Children’s Aid is on its way. Come late May, with the publication of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), however, such sustained cranky behaviour could put your child at risk of a diagnosis of “disruptive mood dysregulation disorder.” This newly minted condition will afflict children between 6 and 12 who exhibit persistent irritability and “frequent” outbursts, defined as three or more times a week for more than a year. Its original name, “temper dysregulation disorder with dysphoria,” was nixed after it garnered criticism it pathologized “temper tantrums,” a normal childhood occurrence. Others argue that even with the name change the new definition and diagnosis could do just that.

“Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder” isn’t the only new condition under scrutiny in the reference manual owned and produced by the American Psychiatric Association (APA)—and lauded as psychiatry’s bible. Even though the final version of DSM-5 remains under embargo, its message is being decried in some quarters as blasphemous. Its various public drafts, the third published last year, have stoked international outrage—and a flurry of op-ed columns, studies, blogs and petitions. In October 2011, for instance, the Society for Humanistic Psychology drafted an open letter to the DSM task force that morphed into an online petition signed by more than 14,000 mental health professionals and 50 organizations, including the American Counseling Association and the British Psychology Society.

Of fundamental concern is a loosening and broadening of categories to the point that everyone potentially stands on the brink of some mental-disorder diagnosis, or sits on some spectrum—a phenomenon the American psychologist Frank Farley has called “the sickening of society.” One change summoning criticism is DSM-5’s reframing of grief, that inescapable fact of life, by removing the “bereavement exclusion” for people who’ve experienced loss. Previously, anyone despairing the death of a loved one wasn’t considered a candidate for “major depression” unless their despondency persisted for more than two months or was accompanied by severe functional impairment, thoughts of suicide or psychotic symptoms. No longer.


Other updates to DSM-5, the first full revision in nearly two decades, have raised red flags. Forgetting where you put your keys or other memory lapses, a fact of aging formerly shrugged off as “a senior moment,” could portend “minor neurocognitive disorder,” a shift destined to also stoke anxiety. Anyone who overeats once a week for three weeks could have a “binge-eating disorder.” Women not turned on sexually by their partners or particularly interested in sex are candidates for “female sexual interest/arousal disorder.” Nail-biters join the ranks of the obsessive-compulsive, alongside those with other “pathological grooming habits” such as “hair-pulling” and “skin-picking.”

The fuzzy boundary between “generalized anxiety disorder” (GAD) and everyday worries has also been blurred. As Allan V. Horowitz, a sociology professor at Rutgers University, points out, changes in this category are potentially the most important because they affect the largest number of people. Under the new “somatic symptom disorder” (SSD), for instance, people who express any anxiety about physical symptoms could also be saddled with a mental illness diagnosis, which could thwart their attempts to have their physical issues taken seriously. To meet the definition one only needs to report a single bodily symptom that’s distressing and/or disruptive to daily life and have just one of the following three reactions for at least six months: “ ‘disproportionate’ thoughts about the seriousness of their symptom(s); a high level of anxiety about their health; devoting excessive time and energy to symptoms or health concerns.”

DSM-5 represents a step back in mental health care, says psychologist Peter Kinderman, head of the Institute of Psychology, Health and Society at the University of Liverpool. Kinderman, who is organizing an international letter of objection to DSM-5 to be posted on dsm5response.org, which launches March 20, believes many new DSM classifications, among them “female orgasmic disorder,” defy common sense. “If you’re not enjoying sex, it’s a problem, but it’s crazy to say it’s a mental illness,” he says. He also questions the new criteria for alcohol and drug “substance-use disorders.” “According to it, 40 to 50 per cent of college students should be considered mentally ill.” Such diagnoses interfere with the human helping response, says Kinderman. “When women get raped, it’s traumatic; when soldiers go to war, they come back emotionally affected. We don’t need the new label, ‘post-traumatic stress disorder,’ ” he says. “We should identify risk, identify problems, identify the threats people have and then we need to help them.”

Read the rest of the article here. 

Training - Vancouver, Victoria & Kamloops

Crisis and Trauma Resource Institute Inc. presents the following workshops

In Vancouver, Victoria and Kamloops

For detailed information on our workshops please go to www.ctrinstitute.com/bcpw.html

Motivating Change – Strategies for Approaching Resistance

Vancouver – May 15-16, 2013

Nanaimo – May 22-24, 2013

Often people experience a period in their lives where there are barriers to moving in a positive direction. Helping professionals regularly encounter challenging forms of resistance in their clients, and feel unable to respond in an effective way. This workshop examines resistance and effective strategies for responding to it. The content of this training is geared towards those new to working with resistant clients or professionals who are looking for new ways to facilitate the change process in the people they are working with. Participants will be challenged to reassess their methods of interacting with resistant clients, and bring a new, collaborative, client-centered approach to their work. Drawing from the approaches of Motivational Interviewing, Positive Discipline and Internal Family Systems Model, this experiential workshop will equip helping professionals with an enhanced style and new strategies that will strengthen their therapeutic relationships and maximize potential for motivating change.

Depression – Practical Intervention Strategies

Vancouver – June 18, 2013

Depression is one of the most common mental health concerns and for some it can become overwhelming and at times paralyzing. Caregivers may feel unsure of where to begin when helping those who frequently feel depleted, helpless and ashamed of their struggles. This workshop introduces participants to a variety of effective strategies that can be used to help an individual who is struggling with depression make positive changes. Depression will be reviewed within the current social context and will include analyzing the impact of new social norms on depression. Participants will learn practical strategies to help engage the depressed person on two levels: changing the negative relationship within oneself and changing interpersonal dynamics that perpetuate depression.

Other workshops in British Columbia:

Addictions and Mental Illness – Working with Co-occurring Disorders

Vancouver – April 16, 2013
Victoria – April 18, 2013

Kamloops – April 29, 2013

Substance Abuse and Youth – Creating Opportunities for Change

Vancouver – April 17, 2013
Victoria – April 19, 2013

Kamloops – April 30, 2013

Violence Threat Assessment – Planning and Response

Victoria – May 15, 2013

Vancouver – May 22, 2013

Counselling Skills – An Introduction and Overview

Vancouver – June 19-21, 2013

For more information:

Crisis and Trauma Resource Institute Inc.

204-452-9199

www.ctrinstitute.com

info@ctrinstitute.com

World Social Work Day: Social work around the globe

Social workers from Australia, Finland, Iran, Kenya and Canada tell us what they like best about their job

Guardian Social Care Network, Guardian Professional, Tuesday 19 March 2013.

To mark World Social Work Day, we asked social workers from different countries what they liked best about their job and how they thought the role of social workers would change in the future. With this year's theme being promoting social and economic equalities, we asked them how their role incorporates this on a day to day basis.

Karen Healy is national president of the Australian Association of Social Workers and has been a social worker for 26 years

The best thing about my job is the opportunity to make the world a better place; it is work with meaning. I also enjoy the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life. And I can't describe the thrill of meeting former students or service users who say I have made a positive difference for them.

The big change that will affect us all is global warming. Social workers will need to become even more involved in assisting communities affected by this looming challenge.
Through research and advocacy I have contributed to the development of community programs enabling disadvantaged people to access education, employment and housing. People need stable housing, and access to quality education and employment opportunities if they are to meaningfully participate in our society.

Shima Paranfar began working as a social worker in Iran in 2004 in child welfare

Being able to help and work with children who have almost no one to help and protect them. They have no one even to talk to them in their sadness. They are an innocent group who really need care and attention. I think in the future social workers in Iran will have a more important role in comparison with now.

Our main job is promoting the social and economic situation for these children. We do this job by educating them and their families. The government gives them a small amount of money each month until they study and can get a job. We try to prepare them for different stages of their lives – for example when they are students or want to start a business or want to marry.

Riikka Kimpanpää has worked as a social worker in Finland for six years

The best thing about my job is that it is the most important job in the world. Nothing is more rewarding than someone who gets better by your help and support. Social workers are society's consciousness, they need to inform others about the problems in society.
In future, I think social problems will be bigger. In Finland the welfare state is changing. It will be very hard to go backwards, cutting benefits people rely on. Social workers will be needed even more when the economic situation gets worse.

I work with people and families who have economic difficulties. It's important to realise that it could happen to anyone. Anyone can get sick. Suddenly your income goes and you can't pay your rent. My job is to offer a way to get over the worse, to help the person to the path again.

Charles Mbugua is a frontline social worker in Kenya and is currently involved in peace building and reconciliation programmes

Seeing people's resilience and their willingness to contribute to solutions to their problems. The role of a social worker is changing and is becoming central to the lives of people and communities as we embrace new and complex economic, political and social changes.

In my day to day role, I am involved in "promoting social and economic equalities" by agitating for changes in discriminative policies and those which are not supportive of the poor and vulnerable. A major role involves interrogating policies which on the face of it do not appear discriminative.

Archie MacKinnon is a board member of the Canadian Association of Social Workers

I am pleased with the evolution of social work from a rather undefined profession to that of an increased understanding of the many social work roles. There will always be an important role for social work at the grassroots level and direct practice, but I am excited that this profession is moving increasingly toward leadership of people. We have a long history that demonstrates respect and dignity of people is what defines us - let's lead in the same way.

Global Social Work:"Stop Killing Kids"

Stop killing kids - Social worker pleads with Jamaicans to talk, not fight

Nedburn Thaffe, Gleaner Writer, March 18, 2013.

Noting that she and her team were fed up with having to respond to the violent deaths of children, a senior social worker and member of the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) yesterday pleaded with residents in and around Allman Town in Kingston to "hold it down".

"Think about it. Mek wi reason it out," said the senior social worker, Berthlyn Plummer, who was attending the funeral of four-year-old Rushawn Burford.

"You have the Dispute Resolution (Foundation) office at South Camp Road. Call somebody and hold it down. It cannot go on like this. I am tired and our team is tired to be running, especially to children's deaths."

Rushawn was shot and killed on the morning of January 31 following a dispute between members of his family and a man identified as Marlon McMillan.

Police have fingered McMillan, otherwise called Shooty, as the killer. He remains on the run.

Yesterday, Plummer told the gathering at the jam-packed Salvation Army Church, located along Prince of Wales Street in Allman Town, that the tragedy was a stark reminder for them to avoid unnecessary conflicts.

She said the PMI, along with various other institutions, was more than willing to help individuals settle disputes and urged them to utilise the different channels available.
"The last time we were here, we had to deal with a double tragedy. We worked with community members, we worked with many families, just hoping that we would have people who are able to talk things out," she said.

"We now feel that we have been running around too much and it's hurtful when it's adults, but (more so) when you have to attend a child's funeral this morning whose life has been taken away," she said.

However, some minutes after she had finished cautioning the residents, policemen on the outside of the church had their hands full trying to settle a heated argument between the mother of the deceased and family members of the child's father.

In the meantime, Sergeant Coleridge Minto, national coordinator for the Safe Schools Programme, used the occasion to plead with residents to speak out against acts of violence.

Minto described the incident which led to the Rushawn's death as a "great injustice".
"When we get to a state where our children are being murdered in the way that this has played out, it is time for us to do more than just sit in our homes and be quiet," he said.
"We cannot recover the life of our young brother here, but we can ensure that we do what is reasonable and justified to ensure that we protect the other children that remain and ensure that justice is served."

Minto assured residents that the police would be working feverishly to bring the killer to justice.

"We will not stop until we find the person responsible, but we cannot do it without the citizens of this nation, so we ask that those who have information to feel free to pass on that information," he added.

nedburn.thaffe@gleanerjm.com

 

Satir & Clinical Hypnosis Training Events - Surrey

Bodymind Wisdom: Use of the Body and Use of the Self in Satir Transformational Systemic Therapy
with Anastacia Metcalf, Somato Respiratory Integration Wellness Educator

Date: March 23 and 24, 2013

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Parenting: Within, Between, Among

with Jennifer Nagel, MA, RCC

Date: April 20 and 21, 2013

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THE POWER OF VISUALIZATION

With Dr. Lee Pulos, PhD, ABPP

Canadian Society of Clinical Hypnosis (BC Division)

Date: May 4th, 2013                                     Time: 9 am-5 pm

Location: Vancouver 

Take Home Techniques for Health, Healing and Goal Setting!

Many psychologists are now recognizing imagery and visualization as among the most powerful tools in cognitive psychology.

The earliest visualization techniques ever recorded are from over 4,000 years ago. This workshop will open the mind’s eye to the rich inner world of our imagination, integrating ancient and modern techniques for creating and achieving goals, optimizing health, identifying subconscious road blocks, developing intuition and creating our most optimal, healthy and fulfilling future possible.

The seminar will be 80% experiential and 20% lectures. This powerful one-day experience is open to healthcare professionals and to the public.

Advance Registration is Encouraged

Take advantage of Early Bird Rates prior to April 12th

To download registration form visit www.hypnosis.bc.ca

CSCH Member $125 (Early Bird) $150 (after April 12th)
Non-Member $150 (Early Bird) $175 (after April 12th)

Canadian Society of Clinical Hypnosis (BC Division)2036 West 15^th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 2L5Phone: 604-688-1714 Fax: 604-683-6979www.hypnosis.bc.ca Email: admin@hypnosis.bc.ca

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Reducing the Impact of Compassion Fatigue Using the Satir Model

with Robin Beardsley, MD, CCFP Family Physician and GP Psychotherapist

Date: June 8 and 9, 2013

For more information and registration see the attached forms or contact:

Cindi Mueller, Administrator

Satir Institute of the Pacific

13686-94A Avenue

Surrey, BC V3V 1N1

604-634-0572

admin@satirpacific.org

www.admin@satirpacific.org

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Satir Transformational Systemic Therapy Training Program Level 1

Date: August 6 - 15, 2013 

Where: Rosemary Heights Retreat Center, Surrey, BC

Time: 9:00 am to 9:00 pm most days

Conducted by: Kathlyne Maki-Banmen, MA, RCC
under the direction of Dr. John Banmen, RPsych, RMFT, SIP Director of Training

Residential $1600 (Tuition, Program Materials, Accomodation, and 26 Meals)
Commuter $1175 (Tuition, Program Materials and 17 Meals)

Satir Transformational Systemic Therapy Training Program Level 2

Date: July 2 - 11, 2013

Where: Rosemary Heights Retreat Center, Surrey, BC
9:00 am to 9:00 pm most days
Conducted by: Kathlyne Maki-Banmen, MA, RCC
under the direction of Dr. John Banmen, RPsych, RMFT, SIP Director of Training

Residential $1600 (Tuition, Program Materials, Accomodation, and 26 Meals)
Commuter $1175 (Tuition, Program Materials and 17 Meals)

For more information see the attached brochures and application forms or contact:

Cindi Mueller, Administrator
Satir Institute of the Pacific
604-634-0572

admin@satirpacific.org

www.satirpacific.org

Hope is not a Plan: Disability & Institutionalization in Canada

HOPE IS NOT A PLAN

URBAN SHERPA FILMS PROUDLY INVITES YOU TO THE PREMIERE

WHEN: March 27
WHAT TIME: 6:30pm
WHERE: Vancouver Public Library, 2nd Level, Alma Vandusen and Peter Kaye rooms, 350 W Georgia,Vancouver

Please watch the trailer: Here

Hope Is Not A Plan is a film about you and everybody you know. 56 percent of Canadians over the age of 75 are disabled. The majority of Canadians will live to their 80s. This means, you or someone close to you will most likely get a disability.

This documentary film shows the consequences for Canadians with disabilities from a fact hidden in plain sight: most Canadians with disabilities, unlike Americans with disabilities, do not have a practical way to enforce the civil rights guaranteed to them by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Through interviews with experts and people with disabilities from across Canada, such as Paul Caune, one of the founders of Civil Rights Now!, gold medal winning Paralympian Paul Gauthier and Courage to Come Back award recipient Zosia Ettenberg, Hope Is Not A Plan shows how not having a practical way to enforce your civil rights makes you vulnerable.

When your civil rights are violated you don't need a good hug, you need a good lawyer.

Please email this invitation to your networks and post it on any websites you can.

Everybody is welcome.

Seating is limited.

Please RSVP at this email asap.

or join us on Facebook to reserve.

Thank you,
Colin Andrew Ford
www.urbansherpafilms.com

www.hopeisnotaplan.ca

@urbansherpafilm

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Hope is Not a Plan screening & panel - Surrey

On behalf of the Sociology Department and The Centre for Global & Multi-centric Education at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, you are invited to a presentation of the new film, Hope is Not a Plan, an Urban Sherpa Film exploring disability and institutionalization in Canada. 

The film presentation will be followed by a panel discussion and audience participation. Included on the panel are Paul Caune, Director of Civil Rights Now, and Professor Timothy Stainton, The Centre for Inclusion and Citizenship, UBC. 

This event will be attended by Kwantlen students, faculty and staff as well as numerous members from the wider Kwantlen community.

Date: Monday April 15, 2013                               Time: 1-3pm

Location: Kwantlen Polytechnic University

12666 72^nd Ave, Surrey B.C.

Conference Centre.

To register: http://cms.kwantlen.ca/Page14065.aspx

Watch a trailer of the film here. 

Deaths of Children in BC's Foster System

This is an outstanding article about BC's child welfare system and the many tragedies that have befallen far too many children. I wish we could get this right. As many of us know, the child welfare system doesn't have to be like this. There are solutions and best practices, but the change necessary is monumental in some ways, because it involves culture change on Ministry and governmental levels.  

Near Daily, a Child Dies or Is Hurt in Care of Province

Reports reveal unbroken toll of tragedy among children and youth.

By Pieta Woolley, Today, TheTyee.ca

Between June 2007 and September 2012, according to B.C.'s Representative for Children and Youth, 504 children and youth perished while receiving care. Some were in foster care; others were receiving or had recently received services from the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD), or a Delegated Aboriginal Agency. Over the same period, there were 1,136 critical injuries. (At any given time, approximately 10,000 B.C. kids are in care.) 

About every four days, in other words, a child or youth in the care of B.C. dies (including those who have received services within the last year). And at least every two days, one is critically injured. Kids and teens in care are about four times more likely to die than other B.C. young people, according to another public report.

Read the whole story here.

Cultural Competency Research Social Work Practice: UK

How to be a 'culturally competent' social worker - what the research says

Research findings indicate that developing trusting relationships with families and having an awareness of local demogrpahics are key to supporting learning disabled people from minority ethnic communities, says Jill Manthorpe.

Jill Manthorpe, February 18, 2013, Community Care.

 

People with learning disabilities or difficulties from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities were highlighted as a priority group in the Valuing People White Paper in 2001, yet many still need better access to good social care support.

Research findings

People who often have the greatest need for support - for example, one-parent families living in poverty, people from certain minority ethnic communities - have the greatest difficulty in accessing it, a recently published scoping review of prevention and social care for adults with learning disabilities noted (Emerson et al, 2011). 

Both practitioners and service commissioners may find the newly-revised version of a framework document indicating ways of assessing local circumstances useful in responding to these imperatives.

The framework was first produced in 2004 by the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities, and has been updated to set it in the context of the new commissioning landscape.

Linked to the framework report is a major document by Poxton and his colleagues (2012) that uses a variety of data and consultation reports to describe current experiences and needs. It is accompanied by two documents directed to practitioners: Reaching Out - Guidance for Culturally Competent Practice (Cole and Burke, 2012), and Reaching out – Guidance for Culturally Competent Planning (Burke and Cole, 2012).

The latter is directed at planning with individuals and their families, including support planning around personalisation. The authors caution that practitioners should not assume that people from the same ‘minority community’ share the same beliefs or aspirations, or the same social circumstances. Person-centred approaches are central to an effective response to meet people’s needs but these also need to be ‘family-focused’. A variety of suggestions about person-centred planning is provided.

Tips for professionals

The other report offering practice guidance draws on research and experience in setting out some essential tips when working with families from BME communities. This report acknowledges that progress in improving services and access to services has been made in many areas, but found that many families from BME communities still report that too many staff from statutory agencies:

• do not follow up the action they have agreed and effectively lack professional ownership;
• are reactive rather than planning ahead with the family;
• do not ensure that families have the right information to pursue matters themselves, effectively keeping people disempowered;
• move on too quickly to enable a proper degree of mutual trust and understanding to be developed.

The authors conclude: “If staff turnover is high, organisations need to consider how they ensure continuity of knowledge, trust and understanding by other means.” (Cole and Burke, 2012, p11).

The framework also draws attention to population trends in the UK, such as increases in the numbers of people from so-called ‘newly-arrived communities’. This may be changing what is required to be culturally competent. People may have cultural and other needs that are unknown to statutory agencies. It argues that because local studies and practice reports are beginning to show that there are people with learning disabilities in these newly-arrived communities, local agencies need to be in a position to offer them support.

However, we are beginning to have better information about people from newly-arrived communities. For example, the new Census data offer reliable national overviews of two groups in England and Wales (as well as all other groups). For the first time, the 2011 Census contained tick boxes enabling people to describe themselves as Gypsy or Irish Traveller, and Arab (Office for National Statistics, 2012) and these data are now reported.
Of course, this population is not all ‘newly-arrived’ but it has been very hard to estimate population numbers. Being of Gypsy or Irish Traveller ethnicity was selected by 58,000 people (0.1% of the population), making it the smallest ethnic category (with a tick box) in 2011.

While not all people describing themselves as Arab are newly arrived in England and Wales either, again we have not known much about this group. ‘Arab’ was the classification selected by 240,000 people (0.4% of the population). This level of detail is needed to update planning and for auditing purposes, especially when it is broken down to locality level. Social workers who have to write or contribute to joint strategic needs assessments (JSNAs) need to be aware of local demographics and their changes.

The impact on practice

Three potential implications for social work practice could be drawn from these studies and reports:

• Practitioners who have not had much experience or access to training may benefit from the practice guide reported in this review; social workers may find it something that they can recommend;
• Data emerging from the Census 2011 will provide high-level detail about local populations that will help providers to see if their services are being accessed by all local communities;
• Taking a ‘family focus’ may be hard to do when services are split between children and adults, so people working in transition teams may be able to help their colleagues in modelling good practice.

Questions for social work practice could include:

• How can social workers work with newly-transferred public health colleagues in local authorities to prevent people with learning disabilities experiencing excess disabilities, and to ensure that access problems are identified and then minimised?
• How can joint strategic needs assessments (JSNAs) be used to promote good practice in commissioning and monitoring, and not just used as data for their own sake?

References and resources

Burke, C. and Cole, A. (2012), Reaching out - Guidance for culturally competent planning, London, Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities

Cole, A. and Burke, C. (2012), Reaching Out - Guidance for culturally competent practice, London, Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities

Emerson, E., Hatton, C. and Robertson, J. (2011), Prevention and social care for adults with learning disabilities, London, NIHR School for Social Care Research

Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities/Department of Health (2012), Learning difficulties and ethnicity – updating a framework for action, London, Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities

Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2012), Ethnicity and national identity in England and Wales, London, ONS

Poxton, R., Taylor, J., Brenner, D., Cole, A. and Burke, C. (2012), Reaching out to people with learning disabilities and their families from black and minority ethnic communities, London, Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities.

Jill Manthorpe is director of the Social Care Workforce Research Unit at King’s College London and associate director of the NIHR School for Social Care Research.