Bridge International Conference for Intellectual Disability, Bristol 2010

"The health and strength of a society can be measured by how well it cares for its most vulnerable members." This bold and sobering statement opened the website that advertised Bridge 2010.

The congress brought together practitioners from 20 different countries in Bristol in May, to focus on current innovative ideas, policies, projects and practices that already exist, and explored ways to improve the way health care to people with intellectual disability is delivered in the future.

A particular focus of the congress was that "although having more physical, neuropsychiatric and mental health needs, people with intellectual disabilities are often disadvantaged in gaining access to health care and to having both their general and specialist health problems correctly diagnosed and properly treated. Too often their  'challenging behaviours' are seen as part of the disability rather than as an expression of their unrecognised physical or emotional pain".

A presentation delivered by four occupational therapists from the South West and 2 consultant psychiatrists has led to increased interest in Sensory Integration from non therapy colleagues.

Emphasising the emerging evidence base for Sensory Integration and clear links to the neuroscience, Consultant Psychiatrists Dr Rohit Shankar and Dr Helen Pearce, supported the use of Sensory Integration for those with intellectual disability.

Dr Pearce shared compelling case vignettes that emphasised what Sensory Integration has to do with Psychiatry; how it impacts on prescribing of medication, interactions with those dysregulated by sensory input, especially where this meant addressing the impact of the inpatient environment.

Since completing the SI Module 1 last year, she has used her learning about Sensory Integration to influence the environmental design and transfer of clients into a new unit. She acknowledged the close collaboration required between OT and Psychiatry to implement Sensory Integration approaches in a forensic setting with adult clients.

Dr Shankar is applying to the Royal College of Psychiatry annual conference and some European conferences to take the presentation to a bigger stage with the core group of presenters. Requests for Sensory Integration Network Introductory days for those working with both children and adults with learning disabilities has increased as a direct result of Bridge.

At a Sensory Integration Network stand, Kath and Ros manned at the conference, they were able to promote the role of occupational therapists in assessing and then creating personalised and compassionate intervention plans for those who have challenging behaviours.

Enquiries at the stand were wide ranging from managing problems self care and eating; food textures and picky eating to an enquiry from a lawyer in Moldova about using the neuroscience and sensory integration to argue for human rights access to different sensory learning and living spaces.

In their roles within SI Network, following the presentation, they have been asked to develop a document for the World Health Organisation about outcomes and the the importance of sensory processing to being able to participate in and have quality of life.

They will be working with the other presenters and SI Network to draw together an early draft of this document before seeking collaboration with relevant College of Occupational Therapy specialist sections for input and case examples.

Sue Allen Chairperson of Sensory Integration said 'Sensory Integration changes lives across the lifespan. This is a wonderful example of bringing science into practice to improve quality of life for individuals and their carers'