Assessment of learning disability: a history
Intended for healthcare professionals
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Assessment of learning disability: a history

Peter Oakes Reader in clinical psychology, University of Hull

Peter Oakes provides an analysis of learning disability to show that the essential relationship of service providers and users remains unchanged

This article seeks to place current methods of identifying and assessing people with learning disabilities into a historical context. It suggests that, although the roles playedby service providers and users throughout history have changed, the relationship between them has always been, and continues to be, characterised by an inequality of power. This inequality has contributed to a series of restrictive and abusive practices, and to the perpetuation of an institutional model of care. The author then evaluates the appropriateness of current assessment scales.

Learning Disability Practice. 15, 1, 12-16. doi: 10.7748/ldp2012.02.15.1.12.c8909

Correspondence

p.m.oakes@hull.ac.uk

Peer review

This article has been subject to double blind peer review

Conflict of interest

None declared

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