People with learning disabilities participating in research as members of a steering group: a research report

As a result of the complexity of needs that people with learning disabilities have, this group of people often come into contact with a range of different health professionals and different types of teams. Despite this, people with learning disabilities are not always given the opportunity to share their knowledge and experience of being at the ‘receiving end’ of care and treatment from different types of teams. This paper reports on a 14 month funded project in which people with learning disabilities participated in the research as steering group members and interview informants. More and more methods are being adopted that involve people with learning disabilities in research in general. However, limited work has been reported regarding people with learning disabilities' involvement as members of research steering groups. The main aim of the research was to explore what people with learning disabilities thought about team working and how this may benefit different health and social care students. The research adopts a participatory approach and reports on how the steering group functioned. The study provides some useful insights from people with learning disabilities themselves, into how team-working can be taught and includes wider team-working considerations for health and social care professionals.