Premium
Active Support, Participation and Depression
Author(s) -
Stancliffe Roger J.,
McVilly Keith R.,
Radler Gary,
Mountford Louise,
Tomaszewski Paul
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.056
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1468-3148
pISSN - 1360-2322
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-3148.2009.00535.x
Subject(s) - active support , psychology , depression (economics) , test (biology) , challenging behaviour , clinical psychology , intellectual disability , psychiatry , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , government (linguistics) , biology , economics , macroeconomics
Background Staff training in Active Support is designed to enable direct support staff to increase the engagement and participation of people with intellectual disabilities in a range of daily activities. Method Residents ( n = 41) and staff of nine group homes participated. The effectiveness of Active Support was evaluated with a pre‐test:post‐test design, using a number of standardized assessments and other questionnaires, with group home staff as informants. These assessments were conducted before Active Support training and an average of 6.5 months later. Results Following implementation of Active Support residents experienced significant increases in domestic participation and adaptive behaviour. There were significant decreases in internalized challenging behaviour, overall challenging behaviour and depression. There was no significant pre–post change in other forms of challenging behaviour. Conclusions Our findings confirm and extend previous Active Support research showing that implementation of Active Support is followed by increased resident participation in activities. The significant improvements in adaptive behaviour, challenging behaviour and depression are of particular interest as the present study is among the first to report such effects. The study’s limitations are discussed.