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The purpose of this paper is to offer a perspective on depression and self-help from two experts with lived experience of learning disabilites.

This paper outlines the authors’ presentation and experiences at the recent Learning Disability Today conference.

The paper shares some things we can do to help our mental wellbeing.

This paper offers the view of two people with learning disabilities lived experience of depression. The paper also offers and insight into some of the strategies they use to manage and encourage positive mental health.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on “diagnosis and treatment of asd in women in secure and forensic hospital”.

The approach is a commentary on a personal experience of services.

Women with ASD are often not diagnosed until adult years which may impact on their long-term outcomes. Secure services may not always have care teams who are appropriately trained to support a woman with ASD.

A commentary on an original viewpoint piece published in this special edition on women with autism spectrum disorder.

The purpose of this paper is to examine guided self-help (GSH), and some of the barriers as to why it is not routinely available for people with intellectual disabilities (IDs).

This paper offers an overview of GSH and the potential benefits of it as an intervention for people with ID with mild depression and/or anxiety.

The current literature reports the successful use and effectiveness of GSH in the general population. However, despite this there is little evidence that it is being used in practice for people with ID.

This paper offers an overview of GSH and advocates for its increasing use for people with ID to help bring about equality in mental healthcare.

National policy in England is now directed towards keeping patients with intellectual disability (ID) presenting with forensic problems for time-limited treatment. The result is that secure hospital services are expected to work much more proactively to discharge patients to community-based services. However, there is little evidence in recent years on the outcome of discharged patients with ID from secure hospitals. The purpose of this paper is to describe the outcomes of a patient group discharged from a specialist forensic ID service in London, England.

This is a descriptive retrospective case note study of patients with ID admitted to and discharged from a secure service with both low and medium secure wards, over a six-year period from 2009 to 2016. The study examined patient demographic, clinical and outcome variables, including length of stay, pharmacological treatment on admission and discharge, offending history and readmissions to hospital and reoffending following discharge.

The study identified 40 male patients, 29 of which were admitted to the medium secure ward. In all, 27 patients (67.5 per cent) were discharged into the community with 14 patients having sole support from the community ID services and 4 from the community forensic services. In total, 20 per cent of patients were readmitted within the study period and 22.2 per cent of patients received further convictions via the Criminal Justice System following discharge.

This was a complex group of patients with ID discharged into the community with a number at risk of requiring readmission and of reoffending. Community-based services providing for offenders with ID must have sufficient expertise and resourcing to manage the needs of such a patient group including the ongoing management of risks. The national drive is significantly to reduce the availability of specialist inpatient services for this group of patients but this must occur alongside an increase in both resources and expertise within community services.

The purpose of this paper is to offer an overview of hate crime relating to people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

This is a discussion outlining some of the key evidence relating to ASD and hate crime.

For too long the issue of hate crime and autism has been neglected in spite of significant numbers of people with ASDs experiencing hate crime and/or harassment on a regular basis.

Although people with ASD are thought to be subject to high rates of hate crimes the literature is sparse when compared to other strands of hate crime such as race or religion.

The purpose of this paper is to comment on the development and implementation of transforming care (TC) and whether it has failed people with autism.

This paper is a commentary.

The number of people with autism being admitted to assessment and treatment units is increasing despite the aims of TC. The authors argue that TC, in serving such a diverse group of people, may have failed to identify the heterogeneity of such groups or recognise the different needs of people with mental illness and people with behaviours that challenge; and that TC could be regarded as a policy that only affects people with an intellectual disability.

Policymakers, policy implementers and health and social care staff may consider reviewing their practice to ensure that TC works for people with autism and their family and carers.