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Speaking up for Yourself: Description and Evaluation of an Assertiveness Training Group for People with Learning Disabilities
Author(s) -
Weston Clive
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
british journal of learning disabilities
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.633
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1468-3156
pISSN - 1354-4187
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-3156.1999.tb00099.x
Subject(s) - assertiveness , psychology , empowerment , context (archaeology) , session (web analytics) , learning disability , service (business) , independence (probability theory) , applied psychology , medical education , social psychology , developmental psychology , medicine , computer science , paleontology , statistics , economy , mathematics , world wide web , political science , law , economics , biology
Current service philosophies place emphasis on service users making choices for themselves and on acquiring the maximum possible degree of independence. Partly in response to this, practitioners have attempted to help service users develop skills of assertiveness. However, there are relatively few published accounts of assertiveness training for people with learning disabilities, and even fewer which attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of training over a sufficiently long time period. This paper describes such a group for nine people with learning disabilities, and it includes a range of outcome measures at intervals up to 16 months from the first session. Difficulties in developing and administering suitable self‐report measures are discussed. Modest increases in assertive behaviour are reported for the majority of participants. The importance of seeing assertiveness training in the wider context of service user empowerment is emphasised.