Relationships & Sexuality

This training aims to help individuals understand: emotions, boundaries, sexual health, personal hygiene and how to stay safe. Vital and often overlooked for people with learning disabilities. The course covers the importance of developing useful life skills and a positive and healthy attitude towards sexuality and well-being.

Relationships can bring pleasure and boost self-esteem and confidence, but they also involve risks such as being hurt, pregnancy and STI's/STD's. It can be difficult to strike a balance between protecting people with learning disabilities from risks and allowing them to explore and develop wider personal and social relationships.

People with a learning disability or pervasive developmental differences (e.g. ASD) can often find intimate interaction with themselves and other people difficult. There are many pitfalls and these can lead to difficult situations arising for the individual themselves or their supporters. We have lots of practical experience in this area and during this course we tackle these using the most recent evidence based psychology as well pracitcal group-based activities.

Young people and adults with learning disabilities are much less likely to have access to this kind of information because of attitudes towards disability and sexuality, lack of resources and lack of professionals qualified to provide the right kind of information and appropriate support. Here we higlight key information and signpost to important resources in educating and safeguarding.