Health study cases for LD week.

Study case 1. Mr Jones is eighteen years old.
He was send to a mental impairment service from the Children team nine mouths prior to his eighteenth birthday.

At the time he was living in a supported flat with 24 hour 1 to 1 support from a private run domiciliary care service, where he had resided for about one year.

He was diagnosed Autism and depression, for which he was prescribed medication by the children's psychiatrist.

At the time he was told that he had severely behavior problems, he had attacked staff several times a week.

This caused a high level of staff sickness to injury or stress.

He has had threaded members of the public.

He often went out to meet young women, that he had relationships with.
He was well known to the police service, who had been called out many times because of his violence behavior towards staff.

He was in court many times for assault and threatening behavior and been detained in young offenders institution twice.

Shortly after his referral, he was again detained in a prison which was 150 miles away from the service.

The mental impairment service attended two reviews at the prison and traveled to see him during his period of detention.

The remain prior to his eighteenth birthday was to gather information and liaise with children's' services.

It was clear that due to his level of learning disability he was not coping well in prison.

The service advised him that psychiatric assessment was done during his time of detention , with a view to finding him a hospital near his home area, and planned for a local psychiatrist to travel to the prison and carry out the assessment.

However, before he could be moved, his time of detention ended and he was released back to his old address.

He was placed on a higher level of 24 hour care with two or three staff at all times.

He has been detained on a low secure unit many times in order to treat episode of psychosis.

A few mouths later, the housing and support provider felt after many attacks, they couldn't give support any longer to Mr Jones due to his behavior.

He was evicted from the property. An emergency referral was then made to an alternative care provider which was based about 60 miles away from his home.

He was moved to another supported flat with 24 hour support from two staff.

A mouth of residing in this placement he again turned up in court following previous assaults and was remanded in prison. At this point he turned eighteen.
He was officially moved to the mental impairment service on the day of his 18th birthday.

Shortly after this, a move to this a move to a low private secure therapeutic facility was planned under section 37 of Mental Health Act. The unit is 156 miles away from Mr Jone's home.

People with LD and Mental Health problems can be misunderstood but it doesn't that everything is down to LD and Mental Health.

Some people may be unaware of what they could be saying or and doing.
There are all different kinds behavior problems.

For eg; I understand that crime can be a serous thing, I feel for people when they lose the people they love.

No is saying that people with Ld should be treated any different because of there LD but there needs to be awareness of balance if it comes to a case of a person with LD who hasn't been aware of what they may have done until they have told in a prison but at the same time we must understand the feeling of the victims loved ones.

The person with LD may be very angry with themselves to a point they could take they own life because they wouldn't be able to stand a life time in prison.

I am not saying all people with LD don't know what they are doing but for the ones don't wouldn't do such crimes if it hadn't of been for their problems.

Some causes could be done to LD, Mental problems or and the side affects of most medications. Health staff need to looking into these things so these people don't put themselves through these things.


Case 2 com pair Mr Jone's case with mine as a child.

I was on heavy medication as a child, which caused my behavior problems which didn't give me any excuse. On the other hand, I can gladly my behaviour problems weren't bad enough to commit a crime.

I found it hard to pay attention in the day time at school and I was hyperactive at night.
I think I was over tried, the medication made very dreamily and sleepily in the day time yet strangely I wouldn't rest if I had the chance of a nap.

Since I have come off those tablets I haven't those problems have stopped.

Back then I would just lose my temper any time, any place and anywhere, kick and scream the place down.

In shops I would pull the items off the shelves.

For eg; if I couldn't tie my shoes laces, I would get very angry.

I used to think that the world was more cleverer than.

I thought I was the only person couldn't cope with every day life skills. The world seemed very big to me when I was little.

It's a wonder I did not commit crimes, with the strength of the tablets I was on, it made so unaware of the world around me.

When I came off the tablets at the age of 12 because I was having less fits slowly I became aware of the world around me and my behavior problems calmed down.

My questions are to you, there's no right or wrong answers, I am just interested what you think.

How do you think my life would have ended up now if I was still on those dangerous tablets? Do you think I would have ended up like Mr Jones or not?
Lucky for me I didn't to take these tablets for the rest of my life, even they thought Health staff at that time though I was going to have to always depend on those tablets for life.

Please send me an email on sarajgorman@googlemail.com.

Phenobarbital (phenobarbitone) I think I took 3 to 500mgs One tablet three times a day,that's how dangerous the medication was for a child or any human being any age.
I read a bit of history about the tablets, the purpose was to help the soldiers sleep in the 1st or and 2nd world war.
My children was in the 1970s.
If you would like to research it on the Internet Health staff and Health students.

If you research this please send an email me to let me know what you have found out.

Case three. Mr Smith is twenty - six years old West Indian man with mild LD and psychotic disorder for which he receives prescribed medication.
He has a long history of petty offence rs for which he has been arrested and in court many times.
These include burglary, theft and minor drug offences.

He is very well known to the local police.

He had spent five years on offender register due to previous sex offenders against a girl under age sixteen.

Mr Smith resides in the area he has moved to different rented places over the years.
He often fails to keep appointments and very guarded about his whereabouts, making it hard to engage effectively with him.

He finds it hard to help himself and many of his placements have failed. His currently saying with family and is soon to be evicted.

It is known that Mr Smith does not adhere voluntary to his medication regime.

Mr Smith is very hard to house due to his history of unstable tenancies, and his offending behaviour.

He had just been arrested for burglary and his court case has been put on hold for two mouths.
There has been an ongoing issues with the police as he and his family feel that his LD is not taken into account by police or professions with the criminal justice system.

He has taken custody many times with no request for an appropriate adult, or any support from health or social services.

Why do you think Mr Smith committed the crimes he had done?

Do you think by the sounds of cases he meant to commit these crimes or not?

Make notes on the balance of the feelings of the victims and Mr Smiths feelings in case of if he didn't know what he was doing. How do you think he felt when he became aware?

In the case that he may of meant to commit these crimes what do you think should happen to him because of his LD?

What should to happen to him if he didn't know what he was doing?

What do you think caused it he didn't mean to do? LD, Mental Health problems or even the medication he's taking.


Do you think he may be misunderstood? Without excuses there may be all kinds of possibilities but we need to understand the feelings of the victims, families, lovers and friends.

Health students and Health staff, if you want to answer these questions, you may be able to research Mr Smith's LD on the internet. Please email if you want if you answer to try to answer these questions.