Who's Challenging Who - example of good practice in Winterbourne View final report

Today the UK government Department of Health published its final report on the Winterbourne View care scandal. A joint project between Bangor University and Mencap ("Who's Challenging Who") is described in the Good Practice Examples accompanying report. The Good Practice report, along with the full review report and Easy Read versions can be downloaded for free at:

http://www.dh.gov.uk/health/2012/12/final-winterbourne/

The summary of the research evaluation of Who's Challenging Who is now in press with the Journal of Intellectual Disability Research:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2012.01630.x/abstract

The Department of Health Good Practice Examples report includes the following information about Who's Challenging Who (quoted from page 80 of the report):

"The Who’s Challenging Who project

Who’s Challenging Who (WCW) is an attitude change training package that has been developed over 18 months since January 2011 (pre‐dating Winterbourne View). The development and pilot evaluation of WCW was funded by a Knowledge Transfer Partnership grant between Mencap and Bangor University.

WCW involves a person with learning disability who has behaviour that challenges working with a person without disability as co‐trainers for a half day workshop targeting health and social care support staff.

The WCW training curriculum was informed jointly by the experiences of the co-trainers with learning disability and by existing research evidence. The theory behind the WCW training is to provide multiple opportunities for direct contact with individuals whose behaviour challenges and contact with information about their experiences of services and being labelled as “challenging”. Small groups of support staff (up to 10) experience an intensive interactive session with the aim of increasing their empathy (what it is like to be in the shoes of individuals labelled as challenging), and changing their attitudes. An outline of Who’s Challenging Who 2 Contact theory (the theory behind WCW) has already been used successfully to inform attitude change and reduce stigma towards other excluded groups, such as individuals with mental health difficulties.

For more information - http://www.mencap.org.uk/wales/projects/who-s-challenging-who"