News Release, 19 April 2001
The Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities is among a partnership of learning disability organisations that will be holding a conference on the implications for families of the recent White Paper on Learning Disabilities, Valuing People.
The conference, Family Matters… Counting Families In, takes place on Wednesday 25 April 2001 at the Department of Health's Skipton House, Elephant and Castle, London. The organisations involved - ARC, the Council for Disabled Children, the Department of Health, the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities, Home Farm Trust, Mencap, the National Development Team and Success in Shared Care - together produced the Family Matters report which was published by the Department of Health alongside the recent White Paper.
Speakers at the conference include Anne Gross from the Department of Health, Diana Whitworth, director of Carers National Association, and Ghazala Mir and Karl Atkin from the Centre for Research in Primary Care Leeds who will be talking on research on learning disabilities and ethnicity commissioned for the White Paper.
"The conference is all about encouraging services to view families in a different light," said Dr David Thompson, Growing Older with Learning Difficulties project manager, Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities. "Families have for many years often been the main advocates for people with learning disabilities and have struggled to get appropriate services, yet still by many service providers they are seen not as allies but as obstacles to improving the lives of people with learning disabilities. The White Paper should enable everybody to look again at this relationship, recognise the value of families and work in partnership towards achieving better support for people with learning disabilities."
During the day eleven different practice-based workshops will be running covering subjects from supporting people with learning disabilities who find themselves caring for elderly parents, the experience of minority ethnic families caring for a family member with learning disabilities, and partnership approaches to transition planning.
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Note to editors
For further information and interview requests contact please contact the press office on 020 7803 1105 / 1128 or email the press office
The Foundation promotes the rights, quality of life and opportunities of people with learning disabilities and their families. We do this by working with people with learning disabilities, their families and those who support them to:
- Do research and develop projects that promote social inclusion and citizenship
- Support local communities and services to include people with learning disabilities
- Make practical improvements in services for people with learning disabilities
- Spread knowledge and information.
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