Resources
Publications
- Beyond Speech Alone. Guidelines for practitioners providing
counselling services to clients with disabilities and complex communication needs. Practitioners who provide counselling services are increasingly likely to consult with people with complex communication needs as part of their clinical practice. The guidelines have been developed to support these practitioners in their inclusion of people with complex communication needs. The guidelines provide suggestions and strategies for making counselling as maximally accessible to people with complex communication needs, whilst maintaining the integrity of counselling principles. This publication is published through Scope (Vic) Ltd. and can be downloaded for free or ordered at: http://www.scopevic.org.au/info_research_bridgingproject.html
- The Bridging Project: Physical disability and mental health. There is little information available regarding the prevalence of specific types of mental health problems for people with physical and multiple disabilities and the kinds of community mental health services being accessed. Information collected from 390 client files suggests prevalence rates for specific mental health conditions are consistently lower when contrasted against general population statistics (as documented in a range of epidemiological studies). The most plausible account for this lower prevalence rate is that mental health conditions for this population are under-diagnosed. Additionally, people from this group are much more likely to serviced by specialist services, with only a small proportion accessing generic community mental health services. A summary of the findings from this research was presented in InPsych, the Australian Psychological Society's publication for members and associated industry professionals. This article may be viewed at: http://www.psychology.org.au/publications/inpsych/bridging
- Anger Management: An Anger Management Training Package for Individuals with Disabilities.
Some people with intellectual disabilities have difficulty managing feelings of anger. Anger Management
is a training package for assisting people with disabilities deal with anger in constructive, effective ways.
It is designed to be accessible to many people with a range of intellectual and communication abilities.
The training program consists of 12 fully-scripted sessions dealing with topics such as recognising feelings
of anger, learning to relax and think calmly, and being assertive and handling problems competently. Each
session follows a standard format, including introductions, reviews of previous sessions, and explanations.
Photocopiable handouts, facilitator's script and evaluation sheets are provided for each session. The resource
has been shown to be effective in assisting people with a range of disabilities deal with anger more
effectively1. This publication is published
through Jessica Kingsley Publishers and can be ordered at: http://www.jkp.com/
1 Hagiliassis, N., Gulbenkoglu, H., DiMarco, M., Young, S, & Hudson, A. (2005). The Anger Management Project: A Group Intervention for People with Physical and Multiple Disabilities, Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 30(2), 86-96.
- Enhancing Self-Esteem: A Self-Esteem Training Package for Individuals with Disabilities. Maintaining
healthy levels of self-esteem is key to leading a positive and fulfilled life, but for many people with a
disability it can be difficult when faced with the additional challenges they encounter. Negative messages,
low expectations, reduced opportunities and discrimination are all facts of life for a large number of
people, and these factors can have a serious impact on the development of self-esteem. Enhancing Self-Esteem
is tailored specifically to meet the needs of adults with disabilities. It is a comprehensive resource that
provides relevant, cognitively-suitable and age-appropriate information and exercises to aid trainers working
with adults with physical and multiple disabilities, and is suitable for people with mild intellectual
disability and severe communication impairment. The material is designed to be used in 10 two-hour sessions
that explore skills that will help to develop and maintain self-esteem. Each session is fully scripted, with
comprehensive instructions for the trainer and useful photocopiable hand-outs.
This publication is published through Jessica Kingsley Publishers and can be ordered at: http://www.jkp.com/ - Supporting People With Disabilities Coping With Grief And Loss: An Easy-To-Read Booklet
The booklet provides practical and easy-English ideas for individuals, as well as information for carers who may be in the role of actively assisting the person with a disability who is grieving. This publication is published through Scope (Vic) Ltd. and can be downloaded for free or ordered at: http://www.scopevic.org.au/info_publications.html -
Information about Mental Health
We have developed some fact sheets which you may find useful.
Depression Fact Sheet: An Easy-English fact sheet about depression.
Anxiety Fact Sheet: An Easy-English fact sheet about anxiety.
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Coming soon:
Fact sheets on the following topics:
What is Mental Health?
Behaviours of Concern
Counselling Fact Sheet: An Easy -English fact sheet about counselling.
