“Active citizen- reducing social isolation”: A DVD resource to enable support workers to use with service users to highlight social isolation with the aim of becoming active citizens within their communities to reduce experiencing social isolation.

Abstract

Many adults with Learning Disabilities struggle to make appropriate friendships and often have poorer social networks. Due to this, they often become socially isolated and their involvement throughout their communities is reduced. Adults with learning disabilities are a population most at risk of being socially isolated as they often experience barriers to inclusion and have previous experiences of exclusion. Despite the barriers and benefits to inclusion being highlighted within recent policies and literature, many adults with learning disabilities still struggle to access services to enable them to participate. Support Works are an Edinburgh based service with a vision to alter people’s expectations of what is possible and to support people to achieve for themselves what they thought not. They strive to deliver a specialist support service to people with different needs, maximising opportunities to access, vocational, recreational and educational opportunities of their choice, as well as considering their emotional, spiritual and social wellbeing. Support works aim to deliver a service in which service users are at the core to enable participation in service delivery maximising service user’s views and involvement. Existing literature will be reviewed surrounding the area of social isolation concerning adults with learning disabilities using various relevant databases. The findings will be presented through DVD format that will enable support workers to use with service users to highlight social isolation with the aim of becoming active citizens within their communities to reduce experiencing social isolation. The DVD will be further used to highlight the importance of being an active citizen in communities and to reduce social isolation.