Background: The prevalence of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) in people with Mild IntellectualDisability and Borderline Intellectual Functioning (MID-BIF) is high and evidence-basedtreatment programs are scarce. The present study describes the development of a personalised SUD treatment for people with MID-BIF.Method: The personalised SUD treatment is developed according to the steps of the InterventionMapping approach, based on literature review, theoretical intervention methods, clinicalexperience and consultation with experts in the field of addiction and intellectual disability care.Results: We developed a treatment manual called Take it Personal!+. Take it Personal!+ aims toreduce substance use, is based on motivational interviewing and cognitive behavior therapyand personalised based on the client’s personality profile. Furthermore, an mHealth application supports the treatment sessions.Conclusion: Take it Personal!+ is the first personalised SUD treatment for individuals with MID-BIF.Future research should test the effectiveness of Take it Personal!+ in reducing SU.
In December of 2004 the Directorate General for Research and Technological Development (DG RTD) of the European Commission (EC) set up a High-Level Expert Group to propose a series of measures to stimulate the reporting of Intellectual Capital in research intensive Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The Expert Group has focused on enterprises that either perform Research and Development (R&D), or use the results of R&D to innovate and has also considered the implications for the specialist R&D units of larger enterprises, dedicated Research & Technology Organizations and Universities. In this report the Expert Group presents its findings, leading to six recommendations to stimulate the reporting of Intellectual Capital in SMEs by raising awareness, improving reporting competencies, promoting the use of IC Reporting and facilitating standardization.
Background The ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL) as a component of participation is one of the factors that contribute to the quality of life. The ability to perform ADL for persons experiencing severe/profound intellectual disability (ID) may be reduced due to their cognitive and physical capacities. However, until recently, the impact of the significantly prevalent visual impairments on the performance of activities of daily living has not yet been revealed within this group. Aim The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of visual impairment on the performance of Activities of Daily Living for persons with a severe/profound intellectual disability. Method The Barthel Index (BI) and Comfortable Walking Speed (CWS) were employed in order to measure in 240 persons with severe/profound ID and having Gross Motor Functioning Classification System (GMFCS) levels I, II or III the ability of performing activities of daily living (ADL); this included 120 persons with visual impairment. Effects were analysed with linear regression analyses. Results The results of the study demonstrated that visual impairment has a minimal, but significant, effect on the ability of performing Activities of Daily Living (BI) for persons with a severe/profound intellectual disability. Forty four percent of the total BI score can be predicted by the GMFCS level and the level of ID; 45% with the additional presence of visual impairment. GMFCS levels II or III, a profound ID level, and visual impairment yielded lower BI scores compared to GMFCS Level I, severe ID, and no visual impairment. CWS scores did not significantly vary if visual impairment was present. Conclusions Visual impairment does slightly affect the ability to perform ADL in persons experiencing severe/profound ID.
Everyone has the right to participate in society to the best of their ability. This right also applies to people with a visual impairment, in combination with a severe or profound intellectual and possibly motor disability (VISPIMD). However, due to their limitations, for their participation these people are often highly dependent on those around them, such as family members andhealthcare professionals. They determine how people with VISPIMD participate and to what extent. To optimize this support, they must have a good understanding of what people with disabilities can still do with their remaining vision.It is currently difficult to gain insight into the visual abilities of people with disabilities, especially those with VISPIMD. As a professional said, "Everything we can think of or develop to assess the functional vision of this vulnerable group will help improve our understanding and thus our ability to support them. Now, we are more or less guessing about what they can see.Moreover, what little we know about their vision is hard to communicate to other professionals”. Therefore, there is a need for methods that can provide insight into the functional vision of people with VISPIMD, in order to predict their options in daily life situations. This is crucial knowledge to ensure that these people can participate in society to their fullest extent.What makes it so difficult to get this insight at the moment? Visual impairments can be caused by a range of eye or brain disorders and can manifest in various ways. While we understand fairly well how low vision affects a person's abilities on relatively simple visual tasks, it is much more difficult to predict this in more complex dynamic everyday situations such asfinding your way or moving around during daily activities. This is because, among other things, conventional ophthalmic tests provide little information about what people can do with their remaining vision in everyday life (i.e., their functional vision).An additional problem in assessing vision in people with intellectual disabilities is that many conventional tests are difficult to perform or are too fatiguing, resulting in either no or the wrong information. In addition to their visual impairment, there is also a very serious intellectual disability (possibly combined with a motor impairment), which makes it even more complex to assesstheir functional vision. Due to the interplay between their visual, intellectual, and motor disabilities, it is almost impossible to determine whether persons are unable to perform an activity because they do not see it, do not notice it, do not understand it, cannot communicate about it, or are not able to move their head towards the stimulus due to motor disabilities.Although an expert professional can make a reasonable estimate of the functional possibilities through long-term and careful observation, the time and correct measurement data are usually lacking to find out the required information. So far, it is insufficiently clear what people with VZEVMB provoke to see and what they see exactly.Our goal with this project is to improve the understanding of the visual capabilities of people with VISPIMD. This then makes it possible to also improve the support for participation of the target group. We want to achieve this goal by developing and, in pilot form, testing a new combination of measurement and analysis methods - primarily based on eye movement registration -to determine the functional vision of people with VISPIMD. Our goal is to systematically determine what someone is responding to (“what”), where it may be (“where”), and how much time that response will take (“when”). When developing methods, we take the possibilities and preferences of the person in question as a starting point in relation to the technological possibilities.Because existing technological methods were originally developed for a different purpose, this partly requires adaptation to the possibilities of the target group.The concrete end product of our pilot will be a manual with an overview of available technological methods (as well as the methods themselves) for assessing functional vision, linked to the specific characteristics of the target group in the cognitive, motor area: 'Given that a client has this (estimated) combination of limitations (cognitive, motor and attention, time in whichsomeone can concentrate), the order of assessments is as follows:' followed by a description of the methods. We will also report on our findings in a workshop for professionals, a Dutch-language article and at least two scientific articles. This project is executed in the line: “I am seen; with all my strengths and limitations”. During the project, we closely collaborate with relevant stakeholders, i.e. the professionals with specific expertise working with the target group, family members of the persons with VISPIMD, and persons experiencing a visual impairment (‘experience experts’).
