Background In this paper we present a systematic review of the evidence on the use of social media by people with intellectual disability.
Method Ten primary studies published in the English language ...between January 2000 and June 2014 were identified from electronic database searches (CINAHL, PsychInfo, PubMed, Web of Knowledge, and Scopus), correspondence with experts, and citation tracking.
Results Nine themes were identified through thematic analysis of the texts: "safety and safeguarding," "social identity," "level of usage," "support," "relationships," "happiness and enjoyment," "communication and literacy skills," "cyber-language and cyber-etiquette," and "accessibility/design".
Conclusion Examination of these themes revealed that some people with intellectual disability are having positive experiences using social media in terms of friendships, development of social identity and self-esteem, and enjoyment. However, barriers that stop people with intellectual disability from successfully accessing social media were identified as being safeguarding concerns, difficulties caused by literacy and communication skills, cyber-language, cyber-etiquette, and accessibility (including lack of appropriate equipment).
Accessible Summary
A lot of people with learning disabilities enjoy using the Internet every day and use social media on their mobile phones. Staying safe online is important.
This research used ...interviews and focus groups to find out what children, young people, their parents and teachers thought about Internet safety, extremism and online radicalisation.
Extremism is when people have strong and dangerous views about laws or religion. Radicalisation is when people support extremism in a dangerous way. People can be targeted on the Internet to talk them into supporting extremism.
The young people said they knew a lot about staying safe online, but parents were concerned about risks.
When people with learning disabilities learn about staying safe online, they should be given information about online radicalisation and grooming for terrorism.
Background
Young people with learning disabilities are increasingly using the Internet but can be vulnerable to being victimised online. As learning disability services develop guidance on how to support Internet use, it is important to explore what support is necessary.
Methods
This research used interviews and focus groups to explore what children, young people, their parents and teachers thought about Internet safety, extremism and online radicalisation.
Results
Results showed that the students were active Internet users and were confident about online safety but parents were concerned about the risks associated with Internet use. Following taking part in a peer education project that focussed on Internet safety and specifically about risks of online radicalisation and extremism, the students understood possible links between grooming and online radicalisation and their teachers increased their understanding of the importance of digital engagement for their students.
The COVID‐19 pandemic has meant a rapid transfer of everyday activities to the online world. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become more embedded than ever in people's lives. ...This investigation addresses how this change has affected the lives of people with intellectual disabilities (ID). A two‐step design was used. A rapid review was conducted on empirical studies published between January 2019 and June 2021. Search terms related to ID, ICT use and COVID‐19. A qualitative international bricolage was also conducted corresponding to author nationalities. Data gathered from the review and bricolage were analysed separately using thematic analysis and relationally synthesised. Digital solutions to provide access to COVID‐19 information and guidance seemed inadequate but were seldom empirically studied. Digital poverty, literacy and exclusion remain significant issues for people with ID internationally. People and their carers experienced reduced and removed service provision, loneliness and impoverished daily lives during the pandemic; amelioration of which was facilitated by digital solutions. One solution often used was videoconferencing. Prior experience of digital participation, adequate finances, connection, support and digital literacy mentoring for both people with ID and those providing services and support facilitated digital inclusion. Digital exclusion during COVID‐19 was exacerbated by sociopolitical, structural, individual and support‐related barriers. Although awareness of digital exclusion appears to have been raised, the extent to which this has led to action and change remains unclear. Despite digital exclusion and digital participation benefitting continuation of life, social and emotional well‐being and autonomy, COVID‐19 has not provided the impetus to eradicate digital poverty for people with ID. Governmental support, digital education, creativity and problem solving are required to enable people with ID the human right to be included in the digital world at this essential time and into the future.
Having a disability, in particular, an intellectual disability, is associated with Internet non-use. This article explores how people with intellectual disabilities used the Internet across the ...United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic. In April to May 2021, 571 adults with intellectual disabilities were interviewed. Participants most commonly used the Internet for being with family and friends, social media or doing online activities with other people. People who lived with family were the most likely to use social media; people who lived with other people with intellectual disabilities were the least likely. People who self-reported as not lonely were more likely to use the Internet for online activities with others and play video games with others. Social connections were identified as the best thing about the Internet. Many participants chose not to identify a worst thing about Internet use, while others reported issues with technology, online harm and threats to well-being.
Objectives: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis, and depressive symptoms are common in older people with arthritic pain. However, relatively little attention has been given to ...the efficacy of interventions that may be beneficial for older people with OA with concomitant depressive symptoms.
Methods: The aim of this review was to evaluate data from clinical trials testing the effectiveness of various interventions for older patients suffering from OA and depression. Systematic searches were conducted on MEDLINE, CINAHL, Scopus, PsychInfo, Web of Knowledge and Pubmed (January 1990-July 2009).
Results: Fourteen studies were identified and examined. Interventions highlighted in these studies were: patient education programmes (N = 3); cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) (N = 2); depression care and pharmacological intervention (N = 2); and exercise therapy (N = 7). 11 out of 14 interventions showed some improvement in patients' depressive symptoms in the short term. Three of the interventions did not affect depressive symptoms on patients with OA.
Conclusions: There was some evidence to suggest that the intervention of CBT, integrated depression care management and exercise therapy were associated with reduced depressive symptoms in the short term. However, the long-term benefits of depression management in patients with OA with co-morbid depression are unknown. Future well-controlled clinical trials are needed.
Being a family carer can be rewarding but can also lead to mental and physical exhaustion as well as feelings of social exclusion and isolation. Research has shown that the use of the Internet and ...online forums can provide an immediate place to find information and reassurance and that forum use can be an empathetic place to share experiences and seek emotional support. This article details a systematic literature search of research on carers of people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism using the Internet. A thematic synthesis of the resulting papers identified that online forums give carers a sense of agency by providing a place to go for informational support that may not be elsewhere. Carers also enjoyed the safe community of solidarity and emotional support that online forums provide. An important finding is the lack of published papers in this area with the inclusion of just eight papers.
Background
During the COVID‐19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, many health services were withdrawn from people with learning disabilities, with negative impacts on people's health. What has happened ...to people's health and healthcare as we move beyond the pandemic?
Methods
Access to health services and health status were tracked for 550 UK adults with learning disabilities, using structured online interviews with people with learning disabilities and online surveys with family members or paid carers. Information was provided four times, from Wave 1 (in the winter 2020/2021 ‘lockdown’) to Wave 4 (autumn 2022, over a year after public health protections stopped).
Findings
By Wave 4, most people with learning disabilities had had COVID‐19, although high vaccination rates limited the number of people hospitalised. There was little evidence that use of GP services, community nurses, other therapists or annual health checks had increased over time, and at Wave 4 more people were having difficulty getting their medicines. People's health did not substantially improve over time. People with profound and multiple learning disabilities had poorer health and were less likely to be accessing health services.
Conclusions
Improvements in access to health services for people with learning disabilities after the pandemic have not yet happened.
Accessible Summaries
Many health services stopped for people with learning disabilities in the COVID‐19 pandemic, with a bad impact on people's health. What has happened to people's health and how they use health services through the COVID‐19 pandemic and beyond?
People and families told us about the health of over 500 people with learning disabilities living in the United Kingdom four times, from the national lockdown in winter 2020/2021 through to autumn 2022.
A lot of people were still not getting the health services they needed after the end of the pandemic, and people's health was not getting better.
People with profound and multiple learning disabilities had worse health but were not in contact with health services as much as other people with learning disabilities.
Background
The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic changed the way we live, work, interact and do research. Many activities moved online, and digital inclusion became an urgent issue for researchers ...working with people with learning disabilities and other groups at risk of exclusion. This has generated new questions about how we conduct research and what it means to go into ‘the field’.
Methods
We discuss our experience working across four qualitative research projects involving 867 participants with learning disabilities, conducted during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
Findings
Moving research online resulted in often‐swift adaptations to research designs and practice, bringing new insights and benefits to our studies. The changing circumstances fostered innovation and greater flexibility and contributed to research becoming more accessible to many. However, doing research online also posed new challenges as well as amplified existing ones.
Conclusions
The pandemic has made it easier for some people with learning disabilities to participate in research, but more needs to be done to improve the reach and quality of that participation. Researchers should make the process of participation as accessible as possible. It is also their job to question and challenge the conditions that create barriers to participation in research and to look for ways to change these. We make some recommendations on how this can be achieved.
Accessible summary
During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic, a lot of activities including research moved online. Access to the internet became even more important for people to be able to take part in the research.
People with learning disabilities do not always have internet access or skills and support to use the internet. Devices and internet access can also be expensive. This means people with learning disabilities can be excluded from online activities and from research.
In this article, we talk about four research projects with people with learning disabilities which we did during COVID‐19. We talk about what we did and about the changes we made to the projects because of the pandemic. We also talk about the things that worked well and the things that were difficult when we did research online.
We think research should be accessible and we share some advice about how researchers can make it easier for people with learning disabilities to take part in research at a time when a lot of research happens online.
PurposeRestoration of walking ability is a key goal to both stroke survivors and their therapists. However, the intensity and duration of rehabilitation available after stroke can be limited by ...service constraints, despite the potential for improvement which could reduce health service demands in the long run. The purpose of this paper is to present qualitative findings from a study that explored the acceptability of a haptic device aimed at improving walking as part of an extended intervention in stroke rehabilitation.Design/methodology/approachPre-trial focus groups and post-trial interviews to assess the acceptability of Haptic Bracelets were undertaken with seven stroke survivors.FindingsFive themes were identified as impacting on the acceptability of the Haptic Bracelet: potential for improving quality of life; relationships with technology; important features; concerns; response to trial and concentration. Participants were interested in the haptic bracelet and hoped it would provide them with more confidence making them: feel safer when walking; have greater ability to take bigger strides rather than little steps; a way to combat mistakes participants reported making due to tiredness and reduced pain in knees and hips.Originality/valueHaptic Bracelets are an innovative development in the field of rhythmic cueing and stroke rehabilitation. The haptic bracelets also overcome problems encountered with established audio-based cueing, as their use is not affected by external environmental noise.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon 10.1108/JET-01-2021-0003
Background
During the Covid‐19 pandemic, there has been a worldwide increase in the use of digital technology. Many people with learning disabilities have learned new digital skills, taken part in ...online activities, and kept in touch with family and friends using video calls. However, the experiences of digital participation or nonparticipation for the people with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) is less understood.
Method
Between December 2020 and August 2021, family carers or paid support workers of adults with PMLD completed an online survey around the experiences of the person they care for during the Covid‐19 pandemic, including questions on Internet use. We draw on the findings of this UK‐wide study to explore the digital participation of the people with PMLD during the pandemic.
Findings
Around half of the people with PMLD had Internet access at home. Around half of the participants interacted with others on video calls like Facetime or Zoom and most commonly used the Internet for being with family and friends online and streaming TV and films. In the event of another lockdown, 27.5% of the people supporting someone with PMLD said they would like support with technology to make seeing friends and family easier. For some the people, digital participation during the pandemic was not beneficial enough to want to continue when restrictions eased. For others, the new online experiences had the potential to be developed in their postpandemic lives.
Conclusion
Around half of the people surveyed participated in digital activities during Covid‐19. Future attention is needed to afford more people opportunities, and respond to access barriers experienced for the people with PMLD and those that support them.
Accessible summary
During the Covid‐19 pandemic, a lot of people with learning disabilities used the Internet more than they had done before. Before this research, we did not know very much about how people with profound and multiple learning disabilities might be able to use the Internet.
Family carers or paid support workers of people with profound and multiple learning disabilities filled in an online survey about their experiences during the Covid‐19 pandemic. This included how people with profound and multiple learning disabilities used the Internet.
The researchers found that around half of people with profound and multiple learning disabilities in the study had Internet access at home. People with profound and multiple learning disabilities mostly used the Internet for being with friends and family online and for streaming TV and films. Around half of people with profound and multiple learning disabilities used video calls (like FaceTime or Zoom).
If there is another pandemic, and people cannot go out, more help with technology is needed so that people with profound and multiple learning disabilities can see their family and friends online. This is very important for people who do not live with family.
Some people thought digital participation was useful during the pandemic, but they preferred to see people in‐person. For others, being online was a new way of being with other people that they wanted to carry on using or make better.
PDF
