By Rhiannon Ansemous Introduction Across the UK, individuals with autism and learning disabilities are supported by services that are expected to promote safety, wellbeing, and a meaningful life. Yet in many settings, the concept of “risk” has become a dominant organising force—often at the expense of autonomy, dignity, and happiness (Beadle-Brown et al., 2016; CQC, 2020). When risk management eclipses a person’s right to joy, connection, and agency, the result is not safety,

Professor Andrew McDonnell reviews ‘ The Age of Diagnosis: Sickness, Health, and Why Medicine Has Gone Too Far’ by Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan (2025). In this new publication, Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan deals with a number of highly sensitive areas, including potential and misdiagnosis of a range of conditions such as ADHD, autism, cancer, and long Covid. Dr O’Sullivan, a consultant in neurology in London, presents a view that overdiagnoses of many conditions leads to a race for explana

Speaking about the LASER Approach, Gareth gave an overview of the core tenants of the approach, including personalisation not normalisation.

In this short article, Professor Andrew McDonnell discusses a recent paper on polyvagal theory, and its implications for practice in the caring professions. Stephen W. Porges is an American psychologist and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina. Porges is also currently the Director of the Kinsey Institute Traumatic Stress Research Consortium at Indiana University, studying the effects and impact of trauma. Porges developed polyvagal theory in 1994, a co

Article by Professor Andy McDonnell The recent HIQA report about the social care organisation Sunbeam House makes for very sobering reading. As a practitioner who has worked with both large and small organisations supporting people with intellectual disabilities and distressed behaviour for over 30 years, at times I experience déjà vu. Many who read the February 2025 report from HIQA may be reminded of the RTE documentary of 2014, Inside Bungalow 3, which exposed similar coer