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The purpose of this paper is to elucidate how care professionals/providers construe, understand and make sense of the characteristics that are important when providing care to adults with intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder, based on their experiences of working within their roles within a residential care setting.

Care professionals and providers working at a community autism and intellectual disability service were interviewed to ascertain their experiences of working with this client group. The research design adopted a qualitative methodology using repertory grids.

Ten members of staff who agreed to participate formed the study’s sample.  This consisted of team leaders, support workers, one member of the executive management team and one clinical member of staff. Ten themes were identified for working effectively with people with autism and intellectual disabilities. These were: making autism-specific adaptations, approachable, reflective/self-aware, strong understanding of their residents/empathetic, benevolent, empowering, follows plans consistently, confident in ability to support residents with autism, resilient, respectful.

The paper discusses each of these ten themes above and how employers can aid in selecting individuals who may be more suited to working with this patient group.

A literature search demonstrated a lack of empirical research, especially qualitative research, on this topic.

The purpose of this paper is to systematically review the literature on gender identity disorder (GID) and associated gender disorders in people with learning disabilities and autism, specifically focusing on aetiology, treatment and management.

This study reviewed all the published papers about individuals with both a learning disability and/or autistic spectrum disorder and a gender disorder. Papers from 1980 onwards were included as this was the year of the introduction of GID to the ICD-10. Gender disorders were taken to include the following: GID, transsexualism, cross-dressing, transvestitism or a gender-related sexual disorder.

In total, 16 papers described 43 individuals meeting the inclusion criteria. There was a dearth of guidance on appropriate treatment or management.

Only English language papers were searched. This review points towards more research needed in this area.

In collating relevant papers the review begins the search for evidence regarding aetiology, treatment and management of gender disorders in an area where evidence-based guidelines are needed.

This study aims to explore the area of learning materials used by students in their psychiatry placement in more detail, and to identify any gaps not adequately filled currently. It also seeks to explore student interest in psychiatry and whether they are considering pursuing it as a future career.

This was a cross sectional study, using questionnaires completed by medical students about their psychiatric undergraduate placement at Manchester University.

Of 144 students, 126 responded (response rate 87.5 per cent). Students spent a mean of 10.1 hours a week studying psychiatry (outside formal teaching). Handouts from lectures or tutors were most commonly used (by 95.2 per cent of respondents) with journals and podcasts being the least common (18.5 per cent and 17.5 per cent, respectively). Psychiatric textbooks were the most useful material for learning about psychiatry. Students identified the need for better quality, more structured and more frequent teaching (n=58). They also identified a need for greater clinical experience and increased availability of resources such as textbooks.

Knowing what materials and resources students prefer to learn from will be crucial to maximize the delivery of an enjoyable and educational psychiatry module. This in turn may result in more students choosing psychiatry as a career. Larger studies are required to support the findings in this study.

To the authors' knowledge, there is very little published research into what materials medical students use to learn for their psychiatry placement.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the gender identity of people with learning disabilities as a precursor to considerations of gender dysphoria.

Discussion supported by illustrations from the literature.

There is limited research on gender identity for people with learning disabilities.

There is an urgent need to look at how men with Klinefelter's syndrome and learning disabilities are supported in relation to common female sexual characteristics.

This is personal perspective on gender and people with learning disabilities which may support work with people who question their gender.

Great controversy surrounds the prescribing of antipsychotics for people with an intellectual disability. This stems from a lack of research to support their use in this specific population together with their “off label” use to treat behaviour problems. This paper aims to review prescribing practice of antipsychotics by the Salford Intellectual Disability Psychiatry Department in accordance with standards adapted from nationally recognised guidelines.

Data was collected from all 178 patients under this department including patient demographics, severity of intellectual disability, co‐morbid diagnoses and details of any antipsychotic drug use. Main standards of prescribing measured: indication of antipsychotic prescribing; documented review of medications; documentation of side effects; documentation of physical health parameters including weight, blood pressure, blood glucose, lipids.

In total, 126 (72 per cent) were prescribed antipsychotics. 42 (33 per cent of these were for challenging behaviour. 91 (72 per cent) had indication documented. 123 (98 per cent) of prescriptions had been reviewed. There was not very regular documentation of side effects and physical parameters for monitoring metabolic syndrome.

Data was taken from all patients under the care of Salford Intellectual Disability Psychiatric team therefore eliminating sampling bias. The audit findings will be of value to other UK urban psychiatry departments as they should be highly representative of a wider population of patients. The authors are already aware of lack of evidence in use of antipsychotic medication for treating challenging behaviours in patients with learning disability.

This study confirms the use of antipsychotics in management of challenging behaviours in this population as a third of the sample population was being treated with antipsychotics for behaviour problems. The study also shows that there was lack of documentation of physical health and side effect monitoring. It highlights that there should be regular monitoring of physical and side effects with careful documentation.