Understanding violence when the perpetrator has an intellectual disability: The perceptions of professionals.

AIM: The research sought to enhance professional understanding of the violence perpetrated by some people with an intellectual disability. BACKGROUND: The violent behaviour exhibited by some people with intellectual disabilities remains poorly understood, particularly with regard to a clear and informative definition. DESIGN: A qualitative study investigated the views and perceptions of professionals working directly with people with an intellectual disability in different settings. METHODS: Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were undertaken with professionals from a variety of backgrounds, and four themes were generated through data analysis. FINDINGS: Themes produced comprised the degree of intellectual disability, impulsivity, intentionality and unpredictability. Findings indicated tension between understanding violence as purposeful and explaining it in relation to the intellectual disability and/or additional conditions. CONCLUSION: Intellectual disability is central to understanding the impact of the other three themes, though there is a professional reluctance to use such knowledge as evidence to inform practice.

'Tolerating violence': a qualitative study into the experience of professionals working within one UK learning disability service.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore this complexity further, enhancing understanding of professionals' experience of violence and reasons for non-reporting with regard to people with a learning disability. BACKGROUND: This article reports on a qualitative follow-up study to a whole-population survey investigating the under-reporting of violence within one learning disability service. The survey had identified a pronounced level of under-reporting but suggested an unexpected degree of complexity around the issue, which warranted further study. DESIGN: A qualitative research design was employed. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 professionals working in learning disability services; data were subsequently transcribed verbatim and subject to stringent thematic analysis. RESULTS: The findings confirmed that the decision to report an incident or not was complicated by professional interpretation of violence. Three themes were produced by the analysis: the reality of violence, change over time and (zero) tolerance. CONCLUSION: The study indicates that both experience of violence and ways of understanding it in relation to learning disability are shared across professional groups, although nurses are both more inured and generally more accepting of it. The study suggests that the relationship between learning disability nurses and service users with a propensity for violence is complicated by issues of professional background and concerns about the pertinence of zero tolerance. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The availability of effective protocols and procedures is important, but services need also to acknowledge the more ambiguous aspects of the therapeutic relationship to fully understand under-reporting of service user violence in the context of learning disability.

Violence and under-reporting: learning disability nursing and the impact of environment, experience and banding.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The study explores the implications of a survey into the discrepancy between actual and reported incidents of violence, perpetrated by service users, within the learning disability division of one mental health NHS Trust. BACKGROUND: Violence within the NHS continues to constitute a significant issue, especially within mental health and learning disability services where incidence remains disproportionately high despite the context of zero tolerance. DESIGN: A whole-population survey of 411 nurses working within a variety of settings within the learning disability division of one mental health NHS Trust. METHODS: A questionnaire was administered to learning disability nursing staff working in community, respite, residential, assessment and treatment and medium secure settings, yielding a response rate of approximately 40%. CONCLUSIONS: There were distinct differences in the levels of violence reported within specific specialist services along with variation between these areas according to clinical environment, years of experience and nursing band. The study does not support previous findings whereby unqualified nurses experienced more incidents of violence than qualified nurses. The situation was less clear, complicated by the interrelationship between years of nursing experience, nursing band and clinical environment. The conclusions suggest that the increased emphasis on reducing violent incidents has been fairly successful with staff reporting adequate preparation for responding to specific incidents and being well supported by colleagues, managers and the organisation. The differences between specific clinical environments, however, constituted a worrying finding with implications for skill mix and staff education. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The study raises questions about the relationship between the qualified nurse and the individual with a learning disability in the context of violence and according to specific circumstances of care delivery. The relationship is clearly not a simple one, and this group of nurses' understanding and expectations of tolerance requires further research; violence is clearly never acceptable, but these nurses appear reluctant to condemn and attribute culpability.