Social cognition in adults with mild-mod intellectual disabilities

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Determining the social cognition skills in adults with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities who are undergoing long-term rehabilitation following criminal behaviour

• IRAS ID

  212076

• Contact name

  Mike Marriott

• Contact email

  mike.marriott@ntu.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Nottingham Trent University

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 7 months, 16 days

• Research summary

  This study will answer the research question: Do the social cognition skills of adults with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities who are undergoing long-term rehabilitation following criminal behaviour differ from non-forensic service users with similar levels of intellectual disability?

  Participants will be recruited from an 8 bed, all male facility providing care to adults who are detained under MHA following a criminal offence. A key factor determining their discharge planning is concerns about the capabilities in mainstream social environments, with a theoretical understanding that their social cognitions are more impaired than is typically expected in adults with this level of intellectual disability. The service is therefore engaged in seeking to develop interventions to target the improvement of social perception deficits; however, there is little available directly relevant research to guide the principles for priority within such an intervention.

  The proposed project will use standardised social cognition measures to:
  * Explore the social cognition profile of this target population
  * Explore the social cognition profile of a comparable (control) non-forensic population
  * Undertake comparative analysis to identify priority areas in the rehabilitation care of this population

  The control population will be recruited from community ID teams affiliated with this unit. These teams provide support to patients who are suitable for care on an outpatient basis, including those who discharged from rehabilitative units such as the unit in question. The control sample will be recruited from patients without a forensic history.

  Assessments will take a single session of 1-2 hours, and be completed by a psychology graduate who is undertaking MSc-level studies. They will be supervised by a practicing clinical psychologist from the service, and will also receive academic supervision from Nottingham Trent University. The student will be funding their own studies, and there will be no finance associated otherwise with this study.

• REC name

  East Midlands - Leicester South Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  16/EM/0506

• Date of REC Opinion

  31 Jan 2017

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion