Trauma-Informed Care in Intellectual Disability, Paperback

Recent studies have identified that there is a high incidence and prevalence of trauma amongst people with intellectual disabilities which often results in arrested emotional development. Some of this relates to experiences of being restrained or separated from people they know, and some to early traumatic events, such as abandonment or neglect. Historically, most of the consequential emotional difficulties have been labelled as an effect of the disability or more recently, as challenging behaviour. For years psychotherapy has been denied to people with intellectual disabilities who have experienced trauma, on the grounds that they could not benefit from it. While this has proved not to be the case and attempts are being made to redress the balance, individual psychotherapy will always be in short supply. Trauma-informed care in Intellectual Disability will enable support staff to work therapeutically. Written by Dr Pat Frankish, a clinical psychologist with many years of experience in the field of intellectual disability and psychotherapy, whose work is dedicated to the development and growth of Trauma Informed Care as a model of working with people with disabilities.

Dr Pat Frankish obtained B.Sc (Hons) in Psychology and B.A (Open) in Humanities and Psychology before undertaking training in teaching children with severe learning difficulties and then a masters in Clinical Psychology. She went on to Doctoral studies and was made a Doctor of Psychology in 2003. She has a wide experience of psychological issues across age groups. She has a specialist interest in early personality development and the consequences of disturbance through traumatic life events.