How an extrovert non-verbal service user taught me to communicate

Learning disability nurse Gerard Wainwright recalls how socially accomplished service user Michael Ludlam taught him valuable lessons in communication

It is said that every picture tells a story. I suggest that sometimes we need to read between the lines of that story.

My local university recently asked me for permission to use a photograph taken some years earlier of me supporting a client with a learning disability – the late Michael Ludlam. The image was to promote its postgraduate master’s degree programme in learning disability nursing.

In the picture, above, Michael is using his