A review of the reported attitudes of health and social care professionals towards people with learning disabilities: implications for education and further research

Abstract

The investigation of attitudes towards people with disabilities has been a consistent research focus for the past 20 years. It appears that during the past decade, in particular, a considerable amount of attention has been invested in investigating the attitudes of a range of health and social care professionals towards people with learning disabilities. Indeed this has been the specific focus of several recent studies. This paper reviews recent research findings concerning the attitudes of health and social care professionals to people with learning disabilities. The implications of these findings for the education of practitioners and further research studies are also explored that clearly demonstrate the need for further carefully controlled studies. Such studies would have the potential to isolate those variables that might most effectively bring about a positive influence on attitudes towards people with learning disabilities.