Frankish Assessment of the Impact of Trauma in Intellectual Care in Intellectual Disability (Fait)

The FAIT is a simple assessment tool that helps staff working with people with intellectual disabilities to determine the level of emotional development of the distressed individual, thereby allowing for an intervention to be provided at the right level within an emotionally nurturing environment. Based on a 40 minute observation of the individual, and accompanying gradings, the FAIT tool enables identification of the stage of emotional development at which the person's development has become arrested. Once this is established, it becomes possible to work out what kind of interventions will be appropriate to address their emotional needs. The expectation is that individuals who follow this manual will be able to effectively allocate a stage to the person they are assessing and be able to design an appropriate intervention, following up with a reassessment as the intervention progresses. Work with the specific trauma will usually happen in individual or group therapy.