The Winter edition of ‘Challenge’, the Newsletter of the Challenging Behaviour Foundation, is available now

“We need to get to a place where we all speak up and speak out so that children and adults with learning disabilities have the life opportunities they have a right to."

-Vivien Cooper, CEO of the Challenging Behaviour Foundation

The Challenging Behaviour Foundation’s Winter Newsletter is out now and is available in hardcopy, online and via email. This winter edition focuses on the theme of “speaking out.” This includes speaking out on abuse through campaigning, strengthening the voice of a person with severe learning disabilities through advocacy, and other kinds of call for change.

In this newsletter, we hear from the CBF Campaign Families – family carers who are involved in calling for meaningful change to the lives of people with severe learning disabilities whose behaviour may challenge. Clare and Helen tell us how they have shared their experiences to drive change and increase awareness of the challenges facing people with a learning disability and their families.

We also have a section on advocacy, which describes the kind of advocacy we can offer at the CBF, our work on the Gloucestershire Advocacy Project, and our new guide, the Commissioners Guide to Advocacy.

This edition also focuses on the latest research and best practice around the use of antipsychotic and other medications in treating people with a learning disability whose behaviour may challenge, and shares the experience of family carers on the impact medication has had on their relative’s life.

You can read the full version of the newsletter online using issuu, or by downloading the PDF from our website. You can sign up to an electronic version here or email info@thecbf.org.uk with your address to request a hard copy.

About The Challenging Behaviour Foundation:

The Challenging Behaviour Foundation (CBF) is an independent charity providing information, support and workshops around challenging behaviour associated with severe learning disabilities to families and professionals. The CBF leads the ‘Challenging Behaviour National Strategy Group’ which seeks to influence policy and practice nationally and has developed the Challenging Behaviour Charter.

The Challenging Behaviour Foundation was founded in 1997 by Vivien Cooper, parent of a son with severe learning disabilities who displays behaviour described as challenging. Today the Challenging Behaviour Foundation is in regular contact with over 5000 families and professionals across the UK. There are an estimated 30,000 individuals in England with severe learning disabilities and behaviour described as challenging.

www.challengingbehaviour.org.uk