Background: As trauma-informed care advances in the service delivery system for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, additional resources are needed to foster staff development. This article describes the development and pilot evaluation of a digital training on trauma-informed care among direct service providers (DSPs) in the…

Introduction: This paper aims to identify to what extent staff training interventions are successful in enhancing the development of communication skills in people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. Methods: A systematic review was undertaken, conforming to PRISMA guidelines. English language, peer reviewed, empirical studies of…

Background: Direct Support Professionals (DSP) work closely with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and can play an important role in helping these individuals get treatment when they are also experiencing mental health concerns (MHC). Methods: We employed a systematic review search techniques to identify 15…

Direct support professionals (DSPs) provide people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) with individualized, personal assistance in a wide variety of settings. There is currently a very high turnover for DSPs, due in part to a lack of training for DSPs. The aim of this study is to explore how ongoing staff development impacts the…

Behaviour support plans (BSPs), if accurately implemented, have been found to increase skills and decrease challenging behaviour of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Training is essential for staff to acquire the skills necessary for accurate implementation. The aim of this systematic literature review was to evaluate…

Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) may engage in challenging behavior. These behaviors present challenges to support staff who often lack training in effective behavior management procedures. Behavioral skills training (BST) is an empirically supported method of staff training and has been used to teach support staff a…

The occurrence of 'challenging' behavior is commonly documented amongst people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Since behavior is not only a form of communication, but often in response to environmental conditions, it stands to reason that one mechanism to reduce 'challenging' behaviors would be to draw attention to people's…

People with intellectual disabilities are more likely to experience adverse childhood experiences than those in the general population. Additionally, the conceptualization of 'trauma' is far broader than traditionally understood in order to encompass the far reaching relational nature of people with intellectual disabilities traumatic experiences.…

We evaluated the effectiveness of an online training on palliative care knowledge and self-efficacy among staff working with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) using a one-group pretest-posttest design. Staff from four nonprofit residential and day services organizations in a U.S. Midwestern state participated. Among 132…

Traumatic life events have pervasive impacts on health and well-being. A growing body of literature shows that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are disproportionately impacted by trauma. Trauma-informed care (TIC) is a philosophy of service provision that is committed to preventing traumatization and re-traumatization and…

The oral health of people with intellectual and developmental disability is poorer than that of the general community. Any solution for people with intellectual and developmental disability living in residential services needs to include disability support workers (DSWs). Previous studies have used either didactic or train-the-trainer approaches…

Positive Behaviour Support is an applied behaviour analytic system of support that is utilised in schools and in residential care settings for children and adults with disabilities who engage in challenging behaviour. Implementation fidelity depends on appropriate staff training and organisational behaviour management. A systematic literature…

Background: Support from staff plays an important role in quality of life for people with intellectual disability. This study focuses on service users' views of Active Support as good support and whether Active Support increases the quality of everyday support in group homes. Method: Nine service users were interviewed at baseline and at follow-up…

Background: Australian disability services must comply with quality standards defined by federal government. Standards are abstract, focus on paperwork and rarely describe what good service quality looks like in practice. This research explored frontline day service staff's perceptions of good service quality to identify ways that it may be better…

Discovery awareness (DA) is an approach to using video within structured meetings to help staff become more mindful, aware and interested in a client they are supporting who has intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviour. The objective was to evaluate whether, and how, DA is helpful for staff in both inpatient and community settings, and…