Risk assessment

Throughout history people with intellectual disabilities have been viewed either as a source of risk or in need of protection (Alaszewski, Parker and Alaszewski, 1999). More recently, the expansion of community care has highlighted the vulnerability of people with intellectual disabilities, bringing the assessment and management of risk to the forefront of service delivery (Hickson and Khemka, 1999; Sellars, 2002; Sykes, 2005).