Proposal on

“The issues of the transition of young people with profound learning disabilities from child services to adult services”

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Transition

The term 'transition' can be divided into two divergent concepts that are: healthcare transition and developmental transition. The transition from a healthcare perspective explains the movement of young individuals, with on-going health issues, from one service to another after reaching a specific age group. Whereas, the developmental viewpoint explains that adolescence is a critical stage for psychosocial, emotional, physiological and personal developments. The developmental perspective views transition as the embarking of young individuals on adult roles by performing jobs such as, deciding on a career, separating from family, and establishing their selves in a social context.

The healthcare and developmental transitions usually occur simultaneously, but viewing transition merely as an administrative healthcare event may cause the needs of developmental transition being unmet (Vostanis, 2005, pp.449-454). Transition process is primarily focused upon the service transfer and not upon being part of the universal process of moving towards independence and adulthood (Kirk, 2008, pp. 567-575).

Transitions and Learning Disability

From the viewpoint of parents and young individuals with learning disabilities, the entire process of moving into a new and different service, and establishing entirely new relations with various different professionals, can be intimidating. This transition process could be considered as a continuous process, as non-continuity in the process may lead to several complications. Young individuals have to manage with psychological, as well as, physical changing in meeting their needs, during their transfer from children's services to adult services. However, there are various different social service agencies that may get involved in the care process, and may provide support throughout entire transition period. The transition of services from childhood to adulthood can be a clearly difficult time for the young individuals, as well as, their carers/parents, and can bring further anxieties and stresses.

Transition from children's services to adult services, in people with profound learning disabilities, involves services such as: health services, social care services and educational services. The transition move from child services to adult services generally happens at the age of 18. This transition to adult services includes much more than a transfer of systems or a set of services to another. This transition involves the processes experienced by all young adults, with profound learning disabilities, such as, moving on from required education, the desire for independence, desire of growing independence from parents/carers and family, and the emotional and physical changes related to the developing adulthood. Following are the key points to remember while undertaking the process of transition:

The transition process of transferring from children's services to adult services, in people with profound learning disabilities, is categorized by anxiety, stress and uncertainty such as, what the future will be.

Young individuals with profound learning abilities, as compared to their non-disabled fellows, are less likely to achieve the things that generally define a success transition to adulthood.

Despite government guidance, the transition process is often to poorly understood and planned, especially for those young ...