Friendship

Author: Kay Mills

Kay Mills is one of the leading experts in the UK in how to help people with learning disabilities overcome the risk of social isolation - by getting friends, building community and finding love. This guide is easy to read and packed full of good advice and inspiring stories.

Too little attention has been paid to love, friendship and community in the lives of people with learning disabilities. Instead organisations focus on housing or support services, but fail to deal with much more important issues of the heart and spirit. This is the next big challenge.

Love - in all its many forms - is the most important of the keys to citizenship. On our own we can do nothing. But with family, friends or a loving partner we are stronger and able to face life's challenges. This is true for people with learning disabilities, as it is true for all of us.

And, we are often too embarrassed to talk about love and friendship. We hope it will emerge naturally, but then we don't take the steps that help it emerge. You can't find friends stuck at home. You can't fall in love without a partner and times for privacy and intimacy. You can't be part of the community if you don't get an opportunity to meet anyone in the community.

This ground-breaking guide to friendship breaks through the embarrassment and coyness to offer practical advice and inspiration: if you find it useful Kay Mills would love to hear from you. 

Read and download the pdf in your browser here.

The publisher is the Centre for Welfare Reform.

Friendship © Kay Mills 2015.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this paper may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.