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Fewer than two in 10 people with learning disabilities are in employment. For people with Down's syndrome, it can leave them demoralised - but are things changing? "I have a friend with who actually pays someone £40 just so they can do his gardening ," says Kate Brackley. Ms Brackley is one of around 40,000 people living with Down's syndrome in the UK. Unlike many others, she is in paid employment. Research from the charity Mencap suggests 65% of people with learning disabilities - including, though not limited to, Down's syndrome - want to work, but fewer than 20% of those of working age are currently in employment. Click on the link below to read more. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-ouch-32613957

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Positive psychology and its promotion of optimism have become firmly established in the popular imagination now. The idea that people who are optimistic will fare better than people who are pessimistic has received a great deal of coverage and has become widely accepted – despite the fact that it grossly oversimplifies the complex dynamics of human experience. The self-help and self-improvement literature are full of examples of simplistic approaches to personal problems and challenges, and the uncritical acceptance of optimism as the way to go can now be added to that list. Click on the link below to read more. https://neilthompson.info/index.php/neil-thompsons-lesson-for-living-be-realistic/

As we expect more from technology, do we expect less from each other? Sherry Turkle studies how our devices and online personas are redefining human connection and communication — and asks us to think deeply about the new kinds of connection we want to have. Click on the link below to read more. https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together

Since my last child was born five years ago something else has bred in my house. Toys. We started off with a few rattles, and as the years progressed the plastic proliferated into an army of Playmobil figures, a soup of Lego, a sea of cutesy Sylvanian rabbits. But four weeks ago I stood back and looked at our toy box in a new light. A penny dropped. Not one plastic figure had a wheelchair, or a hearing aid, a white cane or any kind of disability at all. There are 770,000 children in the UK with disabilities and more than 150 million worldwide. Yet these children arrive into a world where, even before they have left their mother’s lap,…

Occupational stress poses a risk to most businesses and compensation payments for stress are increasing. Employers need to meet the challenge by dealing with excessive and long-term causes of stress. It is well recognised that excessive or sustained work pressure can lead to stress. The HSE's formal definition of work related stress is: ‘The adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them at work.’ People become stressed when they feel they don’t have the resources they need (whether material, financial or emotional) to cope with these demands.If people feel under too much stress and for too long, mental and physical illness may develop. ‘Stress can affect people mentally in the form of anxiety and…

Adult social care has become the poor cousin of the NHS. Those of us in the sector may not feel comfortable with this assessment, but few would disagree with it. While the NHS was the key issue in the general election campaigns, social care was pushed into the background. And while the health budget was ringfenced throughout the last parliament, social care funding fell by more than a third in some places. Click on the link below to read more. https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2015/may/26/queens-speech-social-care-poor-cousin-nhs