Learning disabilities is bigger than a cursory review.

摘要

With funding from the Department of Health, a small team at King's College London (Griffiths et al, 2007) has produced a 'rapid' review of a decade's nursing research about learning disabilities. Its conclusion is that:'Learning disability research is not fit for purpose in terms of its extent, quantity or quality.'The timing of this counsel of despair could not be more damaging, coinciding with the new Department of Health's (2007) Framework for Nursing Careers, that completely dispenses with learning disabilities as a distinct field of practice or knowledge.It is with dismay and disappointment that we read this cursory and superficial review. After 35 years' experience of this field we found no acknowledgment that we have travelled a long way from institutionalized care of the 1970s, to a time when most people with a learning disability will be able to remain living with their own families, and have the same opportunities as every other person in society. Has learning disability nursing had no part in this transformation?