Objectives: To evaluate he clinical effectiveness of group art therapy for people with schizophrenia and to test whether any benefits exceed those of an active control treatment.\ud Design: Three arm, rater blinded, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial.\ud Setting: Secondary care services across 15 sites in the United Kingdom.\ud Participants: 417 people aged 18 or over, who had a diagnosis of schizophrenia and provided written informed consent to take part in the study.\ud Interventions: Participants, stratified by site, were randomised to 12 months of weekly group art therapy plus standard care alone. Art therapy and activity groups had up to eight members and lasted for 90 minutes. In art therapy, members were given access to a range of art materials and encouraged to use these to express themselves freely. Members of activity groups were offered various activities that did not involve use of art or craft materials and were encouraged to collectively select those they wanted to pursue.\ud Main outcome measures: The primary outcomes were global functioning, measured using the global assessment of functioning scale, and mental health systems, measured using the positive and negative syndrome scale, 24 months after randomisation. Main secondary outcomes were levels of group attendance, social functioning, and satisfaction with care at 12 and 24 months.\ud Results: 24 participants were assigned to either art therapy (n=140), activity groups (n=140), or standard care alone (n=137). Primary outcomes between the three study arms did not differ. The adjusted mean difference between art therapy and standard care at 24 months on the global assessment of functioning scale was -0.9 (95% confidence interval -3.8 to 2.1), and on the positive and negative syndrome scale was 0.7 (-3.1 to 4.6). Secondary outcomes did not differ between those referred to art therapy or those referred to standard care at 12 or 24 months.\ud Conclusions: Referring people with established schizophrenia to group art therapy as delivered in this trial did not improve global functioning, metnal health, or other health related outcomes.\ud Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN46150447

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Background The World Health Organisation has launched a programme to promote Global Cooperation on Assistive Technology. Its aim is to increase access to high-quality affordable assistive products (AP) for everybody in need. People with intellectual disabilities (ID) are a specific group that could benefit from AP, but use less AP compared to their non-intellectual disabled peers. Method A systematic literature search was carried out to identify barriers and potential facilitators for access to AP for people with ID globally. The search strategy terms were 'Intellectual Disability' and 'Assistive Technology' with the following electronic literature databases PubMed, Embase, ASSIA, Web of Science, Medline, CINAHL complete, PsycInfo, Scopus and ERIC. The quality and relevance of the studies were assessed. Factors associated with access were identified thematically, categorised into barriers and facilitators and mapped into themes.

The World Health Organization has launched a program to promote Global Cooperation on Assistive Technology (GATE). The objective of the GATE program is to improve access to high quality, affordable assistive technology for people with varying disabilities, diseases, and age-related conditions. As a first step, GATE has developed the assistive products list, a list of priority assistive products based on addressing the greatest need at population level. A specific group of people who can benefit from user appropriate assistive technology are people with intellectual disabilities. However, the use of assistive products by people with intellectual disabilities is a neglected area of research and practice, and offers considerable opportunities for the advancement of population health and the realization of basic human rights. It is unknown how many people with intellectual disabilities globally have access to appropriate assistive products and which factors influence their access. We call for a much greater focus on people with intellectual disabilities within the GATE program. We present a framework for understanding the complex interaction between intellectual disability, health and wellbeing, and assistive technology.

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