Learning Disability England Conference

Hi readers, it’s Kerry here, talking inclusive research, which was featured at the Learning Disability England online conference recently.

I’m really interested in this subject, and fortunately for me, in the last few years, I’ve been involved in several research projects with People First Dorset, who’ve joined up with universities and academics around the country to do research. It’s important PFD takes part in research projects when possible, as the findings can help people better understand what’s going on for people with a learning disability, not just in England but around the world.

Over the years, PFD has helped UCL with research around managing stigma, Warwick University with medication, Manchester University with older people and many more!

Most recently I’ve been working with Lancaster University to research what belonging means for people with a learning disability. What I like best about this research is that people with lived experience are at the heart of it.

Through doing this particular research, I have learnt many skills in how to deliver workshops, and spoken at a London conference. In April I will lead a workshop in Dorchester, to find out what belonging means for people with a learning disability here in Dorset. We will feed back the responses into the main research, and finally me and my co-researchers will write up a final report.

One question that’s come up during this work is what happens to research after it’s published? There’s no point it sitting on a shelf! With much research creating tools which are valuable to groups like PFD, such as the Victoria and Stuart project on end of life, or UCL on managing stigma.

We’ll come back to this another time, as I have some ideas about where all the research can be stored, so everyone can see it!

The writers of the Our View column are supported in their editing by People First Dorset - a charity led and run by people with learning disabilities with support from staff