Kate Theodore

Dr

  • TW20 0EX

Personal profile

Personal profile

I am a highly specialist clinical psychologist whose main area of research and clinical special interest is in working with adults with intellectual or learning disabilities. Since qualifying as a clinical psychologist, I have worked with people with learning disabilities, and since 2011 I have combined this with also working as a lecturer / clinical tutor at Royal Holloway's Clinical Psychology doctoral training programme. 

I am also a Committee Member and Policy Lead for the British Psychological Society's Division of Clinical Psychology Faculty for People with Intellectual Disabilities.

I am currently involved in conducting and supervising research projects, which are largely in the following inter-related areas, which are of particular interest:

1) People with Learning Disabilities who are Parents: With an increasing number of parents with known or suspected learning disabilities presenting to services, and with these parents facing multiple societal challenges to their efforts in parenting their children successfully, I have been involved in supporting and developing services to improve their joint-working to better support these parents and their families, conducted and supervised research projects investigating how parents with learning disabilities are supported, from the multiple perspectives of service-user, family/social support network and professional network, and also investigating the attitudes of people in the general population to the sexuality and parenting rights of people with learning disabilities.

Currently I am privileged to be working with Mind the Gap inclusive theatre group, on their research into the experiences of parents with learning disabilities, which is also part of their creative outputs: http://pc.rhul.ac.uk/staff/K.Theodore/index.html

I recently took part in a podcast for Social Care Inform, together with parents from the Elfrida Society self-advocacy group for parents with learning disabilities and Nadine Tilbury from Bristol University's Norah Fry Unit for Disability Studies which you can find here: https://www.spreaker.com/user/communitycare/parents-with-learning-disabilities

 

2) Relationships and Sexuality in Learning Disabilities: This is a second and related area of interest. I have also supervised DClinPsy research investigating how young people with learning disabilities negotiate and understand the development of social relationships, sexuality and gender identity when moving into adulthood.  

 

3) Provision of Mental Health Services for People with Learning Disabilites: I am also interested in research into other areas of learning disabilities clinical services development, including the development and delivering of Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services for people with learning disabilities, and the development and use of routine outcome measures (such as the 'Mini-MANS-LD') and client feedback measures in clinical services for people with learning disabilities.

Most recently we have completed a DClinPsy research project which has looked at adaptations to the GAD-7 and PHQ-9 measures of mood (used in IAPT services) to investigate their accessibility for people with earning disabilities.

I have also been accredited with the Institute of Applied Behavioural Analysis, and have an interest in the delivery of positive behaviour support services for people with learning disabilities and autism who present with behaviours that challenge services. 

Other areas of interest:

I am actively involved in the Royal Holloway Clinical Psychology Service User and Carer Involvement Group, I work closely with local self-advocay and service user groups, and I am keen to ensure service user involvement is a key priority in the research and teaching I conduct as well as supervising research into service user involvement in clinical services, such as research into service user involvement groups and accessing service user feedback in learning disability and dementia services.

I have experience in both qualitative and quantitative research, although have developed specific expertise in qualitative research methods. 

I have also been involved in research in early intervention for psychosis services in the past. 

 

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being

Education/Academic qualification

Clinical Psychology, Doctorate, Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London

Award Date: 30 Sept 2008

Psychology, BSc, Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London

Award Date: 30 Sept 2002

External positions

Policy Lead / Committee Member, British Psychological Society, Division of Clinical Psychology, Faculty for People with Intellectual Disabilities

28 Apr 2015 → …

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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