The FAIT is a simple assessment tool that helps staff working with people with intellectual disabilities to determine the level of emotional development of the distressed individual, thereby allowing for an intervention to be provided at the right level within an emotionally nurturing environment.Based on a 40 minute observation of the individual, and accompanying gradings, the FAIT tool enables identification of the stage of emotional development at which the person's development has become arrested. Once this is established, it becomes possible to work out what kind of interventions will be appropriate to address their emotional needs.The expectation is that individuals who follow this manual will be able to effectively allocate a stage to the person they are assessing and be able to design an appropriate intervention, following up with a reassessment as the intervention progresses. Work with the specific trauma will usually happen in individual or group therapy.

Since its publication in 2019, the FAIT has begun to be used more widely to inform a variety of care packages and therapeutic interventions. Understanding the Impact of Trauma takes the FAIT as a starting point, exploring the concept of ' emotional disability' that can follow a traumatic event and the usefulness of applying models like the FAIT more broadly to anyone who has experienced trauma. It will introduce some of the key theories that have informed our understanding of the emotional development of people with intellectual disabilities, followed by a series of case studies focusing on different individuals and how their emotional development informed their therapeutic interventions, including people with intellectual disabilities, people with mental health issues, people living with dementia and autistic people.

Literature Review

Recent studies have identified that there is a high incidence and prevalence of trauma amongst people with intellectual disabilities which often results in arrested emotional development. Some of this relates to experiences of being restrained or separated from people they know, and some to early traumatic events, such as abandonment or neglect. Historically, most of the consequential emotional difficulties have been labelled as an effect of the disability or more recently, as challenging behaviour. For years psychotherapy has been denied to people with intellectual disabilities who have experienced trauma, on the grounds that they could not benefit from it. While this has proved not to be the case and attempts are being made to redress the balance, individual psychotherapy will always be in short supply. Trauma-informed care in Intellectual Disability will enable support staff to work therapeutically. Written by Dr Pat Frankish, a clinical psychologist with many years of experience in the field of intellectual disability and psychotherapy, whose work is dedicated to the development and growth of Trauma Informed Care as a model of working with people with disabilities.

This volume highlights the socioeconomic concerns related to medical care for homeless patients and places them at the interface of common psychiatric and medical problems clinicians encounter. Written by experts in psychiatry and other medical specialties, this volume is a concise, yet comprehensive overview of the homeless crisis, its costs, and ultimately, best practices for improved outcomes. The text begins by examining the scope and epidemiology of the problem and discusses its costs. It then examines the best practices for both physical and psychiatric care before concluding with a section on working with special populations that have unique concerns across the country including LGBTQ, women, children, veterans, and aging adults. As the first medical book on homelessness, it is designed to cover a broad range of concerns in a concise, practical fashion for all clinicians working with homeless patients. Clinical Management of the Homeless Patient is written by and for psychiatrists, general internists, geriatricians, pediatricians, addiction medicine physicians, VA physicians, and all others who may encounter this crisis in their work.

Recent years have seen important developments in the computer and game industry, including the emergence of the concept of serious games. It is hypothesized that tools such as games, virtual reality, or applications for smartphones may foster learning, enhance motivation, promote behavioral change, support psychotherapy, favor empowerment, and improve some cognitive functions. Computers and games may create supports for training or help people with cognitive, emotional, or behavioral change. Games take various formats, from board games to informatics to games with interactive rules of play. Similarly, computer tools may vary widely in format, from self-help or assisted computerized training to virtual reality or applications for smartphones. Some tools that may be helpful for mental health were specifically designed for that goal, whereas others were not. Gamification of computer-related products and games with a numeric format tend to reduce the gap between games and computers tools and increase the conceptual synergy in such fields. Games and computer design share an opportunity for creativity and innovation to help create, specifically design, and assess preventive or therapeutic tools. Computers and games share a design conception that allows innovative approaches to overcome barriers of the real world by creating their own rules. Yet, despite the potential interest in such tools to improve treatment of mental disorders and to help prevent them, the field remains understudied and information is under-disseminated in clinical practice. Some studies have shown, however, that there is potential interest and acceptability of tools that support various vehicles, rationales, objectives, and formats. These tools include traditional games (e.g., chess games), popular electronic games, board games, computer-based interventions specifically designed for psychotherapy or cognitive training, virtual reality, apps for smartphones, and so forth. Computers and games may offer a true opportunity to develop, assess, and disseminate new prevention and treatment tools for mental health and well-being. Currently, there is a strong need for state-of-the-art information to answer questions such as the following: Why develop such tools for mental health and well-being? What are the potential additions to traditional treatments? What are the best strategies or formats to improve the possible impact of these tools? Are such tools useful as a first treatment step? What is the potential of a hybrid model of care that combines traditional approaches with games and/or computers as tools? What games and applications have already been designed and studied? What is the evidence from previous studies? How can such tools be successfully designed for mental health and well-being? What is rewarding or attractive for patients in using such treatments? What are the worldwide developments in the field? Are some protocols under development? What are the barriers and challenges related to such developments? How can these tools be assessed, and how can the way that they work, and for whom, be measured? Are the potential benefits of such products specific, or can these additions be attributed to nonspecific factors? What are the users’ views on such tools? What are the possible links between such tools and social networks? Is there a gap between evidence-based results and market development? Are there any quality challenges? What future developments and studies are needed in the field?

Much has been written about cognitive development in those who are cognitively impaired. Much is written about attachment for people who don't have disabilities. Yet people with disabilities have suffered discrimination and neglect of their emotional needs, perhaps because the pain of difference cannot be tolerated, perhaps because of lack of will or lack of knowledge. This book aims to help to fill the knowledge gap and to encourage others to overcome their resistance to facing the pain, and will be an important contribution to our understanding of the world of disability and emotional deprivation. In this book - a result of over twenty years experience with people who have disabilities and additional distress as a result of traumatic life experiences - an attempt is made to bring together what we know about early emotional development and the consequences of failure to provide an emotionally nurturing experience, and the results are then applied to people with disabilities.