Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, Ahead of Print.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and wellbeing of social workers working with people with learning disabilities has not been fully explored. This paper reports findings from a large United Kingdom study that surveyed health and care workers in six phases of the pandemic and shortly thereafter (2020-23) relating to 310 social workers who worked with people with learning disabilities. Mann-Whitney U tests revealed that these social workers experienced a decline in wellbeing over the pandemic period, but this lessened as time passed. Logistic regression showed that social worker wellbeing predicted intentions to leave their profession. This study offers an evidence-based foundation to guide retention policies in learning disability social work, aiming to stabilise the sector and preserve essential experience for workforce planning.

Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, Ahead of Print.
BackgroundCancer is one of the most common causes of mortality among disabled people, and population-based screening is an effective method to identify some cancers early; however, its uptake is lower among the disabled population. There is a lack of evidence regarding why they access less, and their need to access population-based screening programmes.AimTo synthesise evidence of the experience of accessing population-based screening programmes for disabled people.MethodA qualitative evidence synthesis (QES) was carried out by searching electronic databases including Medline, CINAHL, Web of Science Core Collection, and Scopus. Grey literature was also searched for. The search yielded 32 relevant publications.ResultsThe findings are based on Levesque’s conceptual framework. Several factors affect the accessibility of screening services, including people’s perceptions, family support, affordability, literacy, and accessibility.ConclusionScreening services need to acknowledge the needs of disabled people and integrate reasonable accommodations to facilitate their needs.

Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, Ahead of Print.
Person-centered planning has been shown to benefit people with disabilities and their quality of life. However, we have little knowledge of how person-centered planning can benefit staff and administration within a group home organization, as well as the extent to which it results in changes to organizational practices and procedures, as well as perceptions of people with disabilities. In this qualitative study, we explored the perspectives of organizational employees, an affiliating behavioral consultant, and residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities, taking into consideration key insights from person-centered planning consultant-coaches, to understand the effects of a person-centered planning initiative on the group home organization. Accompanying our findings are five stories that poetically describe each of the participating residents and their experiences with organizational employees throughout the implementation of the initiative. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, Ahead of Print.
BackgroundAutism spectrum disorder poses challenges in social communication and behavior, while Intellectual disabilities are characterized by deficits in cognitive, social, and adaptive skills, frequently accompanied by stereotypies and challenging behaviors. Despite the progress made in autism spectrum disorder research, there is often a lack of research focusing on individuals with co-occurring autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability. Robot-assisted autism therapies are effective in addressing these needs. However, there is a lack of consensus on the optimal number of therapy sessions required for effective outcomes, particularly in children with comorbid autism and intellectual disability.ObjectivesThis study aims to investigate the optimal number of therapy sessions required for effective outcomes in robot-assisted autism therapy, specifically focusing on children with comorbid autism and intellectual disability. Gaze analysis metrics, including the average number of eye contact and average inter-eye contact delay, are utilized to assess therapy effectiveness.MethodsThis study integrates gaze analysis focusing on the average number of eye contact and average inter-eye contact delay as performance metrics. A pilot investigation was conducted to explore the critical temporal window for optimal trial count in robot-assisted autism therapy for children with autism. A mathematical model was introduced and validated for eight children with autism spectrum disorder, encompassing 56 experiments conducted over 7 weeks (one trial per week). Robots presented 8 cues in 3 categories (visual, speech, motion) with 16 cues per trial.Results and ConclusionsThe results, validated using single-sample Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, revealed that the unsaturated state, with a median score of 3.44, exhibited significantly lower average inter-eye contact delay (p-value = 0.014, r = 0.86) and significantly higher average number of eye contact (p-value = 0.014, r = 0.87) compared to the hypothesized medians. These findings suggest that the unsaturated state occurring in the critical temporal window has significantly higher average number of eye contact and lower average inter-eye contact delay compared to the saturated state. This study underscores the importance of tailored and targeted interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder, facilitating the development of cost-effective, time-efficient, evidence-based treatments.