Previous conferences

Please click on a conference title below in order to view the programme, abstracts and audio recordings (where available) for that event.

Conference - 2011 - Friendships, Networks and Learning Disabilities: Friends' Stories and Stories about Friends

The Friendships, Networks and Learning Disabilities: Friends' Stories and Stories about Friends conference was held on Tuesday 12th and Wednesday 13th July 2011 at The Open University, Milton Keynes.

Day 1 - Tuesday 12th July 2011

Title	Presenter(s)	Audio	Abstracts
Coffee and registration
Introduction
Working together, making friends	Zoe Hughes
Uniting friends with Woodbine	Deborah Williams
Tea and coffee
Twenty-one years of working together: a history of Central England People First and our friends	Central England People First
Having friends - they help you when you're stuck	Liz Tilly (Bristol University) and the Money, Friends and Making Ends Meet group
Lunch
Introduction
Friendships and adults with profound and multiple learning disabilities in England disability policy	Rachel Hughes
Making and keeping friends - has it got any easier in the last 20 years?	Catherine and Johanna de Haas
Tea and coffee
Friendships across a boundary	Mabel Cooper, Gloria Ferris and Jane Abraham
My views on and experiences of finding, keeping and losing friends	Josh McDonagh

Day 2 - Wednesday 13th July 2011

Title	Presenter(s)	Audio	Abstracts
Coffee and registration
Introduction
'Guy don't need no sense to be a nice fella'. The friendships of people with learning disabilities as depicted in the novel and short story from 1841 to the present day	Simon Jarrett
The revenge of 'Billy no-mates'	Daniel Docherty
Tea and coffee
Discovering our heritage and making friends	Changing Our Lives
Experiences of friendship of young people with learning disabilities at the transition to adulthood	Natalia Postek
Lunch
Introduction
Friends in my life	Catherine Evans
Friendship in the lives of eight adults with learning disabilities	Gillian Allan
Tea and coffee
'We told each other secrets when the lights went off'. Stories from Craig Phadraig Hospital and People First	Karrie Marshall
Final reflections and close of conference	Liz Tilley, Daniel Docherty and Ian Davies

Conference - 2010 - Staff Stories and Stories about Staff

The Staff Stories and Stories about Staff conference was held on Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd July 2010 at The Open University, Milton Keynes.

Day 1 - Thursday 1st July 2010

Title	Presenter(s)	Audio	Abstracts
Registration and coffee
Introduction
Blow the rules, I want you there for what I want (Colin Hiscoe)	Keynote speech by Professor Kelley Johnson
The role of support workers in my life, past and present	Christopher Blunt
Tea and coffee
Staff as liberators: liberation from what?	Sue Dumbleton
St Lawrence's staff then and now	Mabel Cooper, Gloria Ferris and Jane Abraham
The way it was ... Stories from and about staff working in learning disability services, in the Highlands of Scotland, between 1966 and 2009	Karrie Marshall
Lunch, exhibition and viewing of the posters
Introduction
'He is a poor, foolish lad'. Before there were staff-informal family and social networks of support in the 18th and early 19th century London, and how the asylum system broke them up	Simon Jarrett
Let us then be up and doing	David S Stewart, OBE
Tea and coffee
Memories, stories and identity	David Wilberforce and Kate Mountford
Staff stories from the 1980s	Allan Mayer

Day 2 - Friday 2nd July 2010

Title	Presenter(s)	Audio	Abstracts
Registration and coffee
Introduction
Staff now and then - what has changed?	Eygló Ebba Hreinsdóttir and Gudrun Stefansdóttir
A personal journey through different roles from 1973 to present day	Robert Henstock
Tea and coffee
My stories of staff from Cell Barnes Hospital	Ivy Bozer and David O'Driscoll
The leopard has changed its spots	Daniel Docherty
Stories we tell about ourselves and others. Narrative theory and 'stories about stories' on the truth and ownership in a share of stories	Frank Bylov
Lunch, exhibition, viewing of posters and poster competition
Introduction
'... what is the kerfuffle going to be like?' Managing the closure of an institution: an oral history	Nigel Ingham
Hello and goodbye	Deborah Williams, Sue Spencer and the Reminiscence Group at Woodbine, Wanstead
Tea and coffee
From community activists to 'jobs brokers': how has the job of supporting people towards employment changed over the last 30 years?	Lee Humber
'And the people said they would never do it!' Staff stories about working in the community after working in institutions The presentation will end with reflections from Professor Duncan Mitchell	Melanie Chapman and Professor Duncan Mitchell

Conference - 2009 - Families, History and Learning Difficulties

The Families, History and Learning Difficulties conference was held on Thursday 9th and Friday 10th July 2009 at The Open University, Milton Keynes.

Thursday 9th July 2009 - 'Discovering Families'

Title	Presenter(s)	Audio	Abstracts
Registration and coffee
Introduction – Co-chairs: Sue Dumbleton, Victor Hall and Pam Dale
Family secrets: learning difficulties and the family	Keynote speech by Deborah Cohen
Generation to generation: finding out about where people with learning difficulties fit into their family trees	Mabel Cooper and Gloria Ferris
Tea and coffee
Children and young people with learning difficulties in mid-nineteenth century Britain	David Stewart
Missed but still very much there: death and dying in an old learning disability hopsital	Stuart Todd and David O'Driscoll
Substitute families: teachers as primary caregivers during the Second World War	Sue Wheatcroft
Lunch and Exhibition
Introduction – Co-chairs: Nigel Ingham* and Gloria Ferris
Finding my family	Victor Hall
More than just a name in an admission book: discovering lost families and histories of those with learning disabilities one hundred years ago	Kath Ensor
Tea and coffee
Parental accounts of autism	Mary Langan
Views and experiences of older family carers with special reference to ethnicity	Raghu Raghavan

*Changes to the original programme

Friday 10th July 2009 - 'Family Experiences'

Title	Presenter(s)	Audio	Abstracts
Registration and coffee
Introduction – Co-chairs: Anne Lewthwaite, Mabel Cooper and Sue Ledger
Making sense of the past: a sibling account*	Rohhss Chapman*
This was my life: I'm here to tell it	Kelley Johnson and Patrick Kearney
Tea and coffee
Life histories and families	Louise Frost
The exceptional experience of difference: a learning journey through difficulties and insights	Hilra Vinha
My life	Elizabeth Harkness
Lunch, Exhibition and Film
Introduction – Co-chairs: David O'Driscoll and Patrick Delaney
Autism and learning disability over time: an early-life history approach	Andrew Lovell
Out of the frying pan ...	Daniel Doherty
Tea and coffee
When hospital care was the main alternative to family care: a survey in 1983	Anne McAreavy
Summing up	Jan Walmsley

*Changes to the original programme

Spending Time - July 2008

The Spending Time conference was held on Thursday 3rd July 2008 at The Open University, Milton Keynes and was followed the next day by our international seminar Spending Time in Institutions.

Title	Presenter(s)	Audio	Abstracts
Registration and coffee
Introduction – Co-chairs: Gloria Ferris and Lee Humber
Time and Money: Changing configurations in learning disability day services	Keynote speech by Helen Graham
Time spent preparing for work: the experiences of students at a Further Education College in inner-city London	Lee Humber
Tea and coffee
Working inside and outside Leavesden Hospital	Patrick Delaney and David O'Driscoll
Our Free Time	Kelley Johnson and Ross O'Neill
Spending Time	Paul and Sue Dumbleton
Lunch
Introduction – Co-chairs: Lloyd McCann and David O'Driscoll
Spending time – comparing the choices for young people with learning disabilities (16-19 years) now, with the choices we had when we were young – 40 years ago	Mabel Cooper, Gloria Ferris and Jane Abraham
Viggo's difficult world – or: "Who Decides the Future?"	Frank Bylov
Tea
Cut Off: How we spent our time in a residential school	Sally French
Summing up	Helen Graham

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Learning Disability, Relationships and Sexuality: Past and Present - July 2007

The Learning Disability, Relationships and Sexuality: Past and Present conference was held on 5th July 2007 at the Open University, Milton Keynes.

Title	Presenter(s)	Audio	Abstracts
Registration and Coffee
Introduction by Daniel Docherty and Rohhss Chapman (Co-chairs)
Good as you 2	Daniel Doherty
Sexuality and Relationships: From research to policy to action	Kelley Johnson
Tea/Coffee Break
Sexual vices are kept within a very limited compass: sexual understandings and expression in Australia's largest institution for people with learning disabilities, 1887–2007	Corinne Manning and Lee-Ann Monk
Notes from research into the sexuality and sexual health of adults with learning difficulties	Zara Ferreira
Lunch
What factors influence the sterilisation of people with learning disabilities	Alison Stansfield
Promoting sexualities; protecting from abuse: how shifting attitudes and policies have shaped the Ann Craft Trust	Rachel Fyson
Tea
Young people with learning disabilities (16–25 year olds) and sexuality	Change, Leeds
Summing up

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Public and Private Lives – March 2006

Public and Private Lives was the second conference in our 'Biography and Learning Disability' series, and was held on 30th March 2006 at the Open University, Milton Keynes.

Title	Presenter	Audio	Abstracts
Registration and Coffee
Introduction by Dorothy Atkinson
Life Books from My Personal Experience as a Parent	Ann Tombs
My Life Story: The Great Escape	Lloyd Page
Coffee Break
PANEL: (Paper 1) The Hertfordshire History Project	David O'Driscoll
(Paper 2) Charlotte - My book of Verse	Pamela Dale
"I think you meant ..." Reflecting on Biography	Kelley Johnson
Lunch
(Short multi-media presentation) Is My Story So Different From Yours?: The Life Stories of Eyglo Ebba Hreinsdottir and Anne Lewthwaite	Sue Ledger and Lindy Shufflebotham
Stories on Claiming Identity	Tony Taylor and Pamela Page
Tea
How the Computer has Changed My Life	Majorie Chappell
Aston Hall Remembers	Robert Johnson

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The Stories People Tell: Biography and Learning Disability – July 2005

The Stories People Tell: Biography and Learning Disability was a one day conference held on 6th July 2005 at The Open University, Milton Keynes. It was organised by the Faculty of Health & Social Care's Social History of Learning Disability Group.

Title	Presenter	Abstracts
Registration and Coffee
Introduction to the day
Being a Biographer: Tracing My Family	Liz Verburgh
Being Parents and Professionals: An Autobiographical Account	Sue Dumbleton
Coffee Break
The King with Learning Difficulties: Charles II of Spain 1665-1700	Paul Williams
Significant Sisters - The Miss Whites of Bath: A tale of four sisters	David Stewart, Michael Hibbert and Michelle Cafferkey
My family	Catherine Evans
Lunch (and video by David Knight)
Visually Impaired People with Learning Difficulties: their education from the early 20th century	Sally French
"Listen to Us!": Citizenship education for young people with special educational needs	Sarah Bustard, Amanda Platt, Leigh Meakin
Tea
"Were you scared when you went into the hospital?" The Schools Project 2003–04	Mable Cooper and Jane Abraham
Being in the Right Place at the Right Time	Heather Cadbury

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The History of Advocacy and Self Advocacy – December 2002

The History of Advocacy and Self Advocacy was a one day conference held on 4th December 2002 at The Open University, Milton Keynes. It was organised by the Faculty of Health & Social Care's Social History of Learning Disability Group.

Title	Presenter	Abstracts
Registration and Coffee
Introduction to the day
Fires Burning: Advocacy, camping and children with learning disabilities in Ontario, Canada, 1950-1970	Jessa Chupik
The history of advocacy and self-advocacy in Southend	Rose Mossop, Susan Douglas and Myra Bradley
Coffee Break
History of Speaking Up For Action (SUFA). How it all started	Tina Wilkinson
Huddersfield People First: Our experiences of self-advocacy	Dan Goodley
Lunch
Two pioneers of self-advocacy: Ray Loomis and Tom Houlihan	Paul Williams
Good Companions: our experiences of advocacy	Mabel Cooper and Gloria Ferris
One man's dream that continues to inspire others	Heather Cadbury

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Testimonies of Resistance in Learning Disability History – December 2001

The Testimonies of Resistance in Learning Disability History one day conference was held on 5th December 2001 at The Open University, Milton Keynes. The theme of this year's conference was 'Testimonies of Resistance'.

Title	Presenter	Video low or high quality		Abstracts
Registration and Coffee
Introduction to the day
Taking a stand against the odds	Kelley Johnson
3 Generations of Mothers with Learning Difficulties in Iceland	Rannveig Traustadottir
Coffee Break
Stereotyped Behaviour: resistance by people with profound learning difficulties	Melanie Nind
A Full Life	Mary Coventry
"What they want, yes - but we want, bugger us" Carlisle People First	Rohhss Chapman
There are bigger fish to fry	Louise Townson
I used to keep my feelings to myself	Elizabeth Harkness
I'm going to turn it all around	Malcolm Eardley
I've been from pillar to post	Andy Docherty
Lunch
Assistance and Resistance: making sense of inter-war caring	Pam Dale
Resistance and Resilience issues for oral history in Iceland	Gudrun Stefansdottir
Tea
Weaving a Tale	Marjorie Chappell
Resistance in Mencap's History	Elizabeth Tilley

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