Library/ resources Thursday: 19th December 2013

Online videos of presentations on Down syndrome and Ageing
Co-Directors of the Adult Down Syndrome Centre's clinic (in Chicago), Drs Brian Chicoine and Dennis McGuire, participated in a conference on Down syndrome and Ageing in September 2013. The Los Angeles event was sponsored by the (US) National Down Syndrome Society and the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles.

Links to five online videos of the presentations are here.

School Link Newsletter, December 2013 - on mental health and intellectual disability

The December 2013 issue of The Children’s Hospital at Westmead’s School-Link newsletter on mental health and intellectual disability in children and adolescents is now online.

Highlights include:

• Draft Guidelines on the Pathways to Care for Children and Adolescents with Intellectual Disability and Challenging Behaviour and/or Mental Health Problems. David Dossetor  Access to Allied Psychological Services (ATAPS)
• Report on the Society for the Study of Behavioural Phenotypes Conference Dr Peter Wurth
• Using the Positive Behaviour for Learning Framework. Leanne Neville
• Collaboration: not the Emperors New Clothes. Terry Sarten
• Neuropsychological Profile of Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. Dr Phil Ray
• Neuroscience of caregiving: a seminar with Dr Daniel Hughes. Anders Hansson
• Personalised Learning and Support for Students with Additional Needs: Every Student Every School. Katrina Worrall
• The Medicine Cabinet. Clonidine Judy Longworth

Back issues of this excellent publication are available online here. The School Link team invites readers to circulate the newsletter to anyone else who might be interested.


All About Sex - new book edition

Family Planning NSW bookshop, $10 introductory price

All About Sex is for people with intellectual disability and the people who support them. It is easy to read and includes illustrations to help people with intellectual disability learn about sexuality and relationships. It covers a range of topics including bodies, relationships, sex, pregnancy and reproduction, sexual health and sexual assault. 

Some people with intellectual disability will be able to read the book independently but most will need the support of a family member, teacher, support worker or advocate.

Transition to Retirement: A guide to inclusive practice - new manual for practitioners
Roger Stancliffe, Nathan Wilson, Nicolette Gambin, Christine Bigby and Susan Balandin, University of Sydney Press, 2013 ($25.00)

Based on a 3-year ARC Linkage research project plus several years of service delivery experience, this manual provides disability practitioners with detailed practical information about how to effectively support older people with long-term disability (such as intellectual disability) to join mainstream community groups or volunteering groups.

The manual (is designed to accompany) the Transition to retirement DVD. This 63-minute DVD includes the individual stories of six men and women with long-term disability in their 50s, 60s or 70s who reduced their days of work at an Australian Disability Enterprise (“sheltered” employment) and took up new enjoyable socially inclusive activities to prepare for retirement. These stories provide role models and give concrete examples of varied opportunities for inclusive occupation and companionship. The DVD makes the idea of inclusive activities in retirement easily understandable to people with disability, their families and community organisations. (NSW CID E-Newsletter, December 2013)

Both the Transition to Retirement manual and DVD can be ordered online here.