The Handbook of Intellectual Disability and Clinical Psychology Practice

The Handbook of Intellectual Disability and Clinical Psychology Practice
Edited by Alan Carr, Gary O’Reilly, Patricia Noonan Walsh and John McEvoy, Routledge
ISBN 9781583918623,
£32.99

Star rating: 4/5




Weighing in at just short of 1,000 pages, this book is packed with excellent chapters from an A-list of psychology academics, psychiatrists and researchers, from across the UK, Ireland, the US and Australia, writes Richard Curen.

It will certainly prove to be the essential textbook on learning disabilities for clinical psychologists in training. However, there is much here of interest to others working in the field.

There are 26 chapters divided into seven sections that loosely follow a developmental route. The chapters on managing mental health problems, sexual abuse, sexual offending, and risk assessment were the most useful for me because of their accessibility and grasp of the subject material.

Other chapters looked at family, assessments, planning interventions and development. My only criticism is the lack of a more psychodynamic approach to the thinking about people with learning disabilities and the effects of growing up in this society on individuals.

However, this book really excels in doing what it says on the tin and reflects contemporary developments and knowledge from across the English-speaking world of clinical psychology and learning disabilities.

Richard Curen is director of Respond in London




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