Congratulations on reaching the final module!

 

Let’s recap the key messages from all previous modules:

As a staff member in a mainstream service, you have a legal and ethical responsibility to make your service inclusive for people of all abilities. This resource has helped you learn important principles for making your service inclusive for people with intellectual disabilities.

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• Respect people’s dignity, autonomy and privacy by treating them as equals who make their own decisions, and have control over their personal information. 

• Create a warm, friendly and safe environment by engaging with people in a personal and friendly ways and showing genuine interest in them. 

• Create opportunities for direct interaction between service users and foster connections without imposing them.

• Ensure your service is a safe space where all people are free from aggression or abuse by preventing or addressing aggressive behaviour and conflicts.

• Make your service communication accessible by ensuring staff and users can all get their message across –taking time, actively listening, using diverse forms of communication (written, audio, visual) and communication aids.

• Be proactive about providing assistance by asking what people might need to use the service, making it easy to ask you for help and checking that they got what they wanted before they leave. 

• Adjust the level of assistance you provide to the needs of each individual service user

• Be flexible rather than rigid about service plans, rules and procedures

• It is your responsibility to deliver the service in a way that includes people with intellectual disabilities. Working in partnership with other supporters of a person, if there are any, can help achieve inclusion."

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Remember – making your service inclusive for people with intellectual disabilities, will make it more inclusive for all service users. Everyone wants to be treated with respect, to be in a friendly and safe environment, to receive assistance tailored to their needs, and to be listened to. 

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From theory to practice

Whatever your role is in your organisation, you have an important role to play in making your service more inclusive.

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Apply the principles you have learned here in your everyday practice and in your engagement with all service users.

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Be a role model, sharing this knowledge and encouraging others in your organisation to follow the principles of inclusive services

 

Alert your managers when you notice bigger changes that need to be made in your organisation to make it more inclusive.