Supporting Women with Learning Disabilities Through the Menopause A manual and training resource for health and social care workers

This flexible new edition of our best-selling training pack provides a valuable resource for working with individuals and groups, as well as for staff training, on the vital topic of menopause. It provides thoroughly piloted and comprehensive information about the menopause, in addition to how women with learning disabilities can be affected and how they might best be supported. Training on the menopause within services is very rare, therefore the exercises in this pack are designed to encourage those with or without specialist knowledge to run training for other staff, and supportive work with service users. The group work option gives women with learning disabilities the opportunity to come together and recognise that the menopause is normal part of life, something that happens to all women. As well as learning about the menopause it can foster a sense of sharing and connection. As a resource for individual work, the materials provide an opportunity to give information and discuss personal subjects in depth, with the aid of pictures and film. The resource also contains a variety of staff training exercises, with supporting materials, which may help prepare staff for this work. They are designed to help staff recognise when women with learning disabilities might be going through the menopause and how they might help. The training also enables staff to examine their own and other people’s attitudes to the menopause.

Michelle McCarthy, reader in learning disabilities, Tizard Centre, University of Kent Michelle McCarthy has worked with people with learning disabilities throughout her career. She worked first in residential care, then trained as a social worker. Her work in the area of sexuality began with David Thompson, working on a specialist sex education service. Since 1993, she has worked at the Tizard Centre, University of Kent, where she is a reader in learning disabilities. Her academic and practice-based work involves all matters relating to sexuality and relationships, but she has a particular interest in working with women with learning disabilities. Michelle has conducted research on the reproductive health of women with learning disabilities, focusing on contraception and on the menopause. She has published widely in these fields. This includes a number of resource packs with Pavilion Publishing, but also in books, academic and professional journals. Lorraine Millard, psychotherapist, supervisor, trainer and mindfulness teacher Lorraine Millard is a UKCP registered psychotherapist, approved supervisor and a drama therapist. She is also a trainer and tutor in counselling and psychotherapy. One of her specialist areas is sexuality, abuse and working with women with learning disabilities, and she has been involved in making several videos with and about people with learning disabilities. For the past eight years she has been a mindfulness teacher and recently co-wrote a book on mindfulness and stress for Sheldon Press.