mainstream services

If a person who has a learning disability is banging their head, being silent, or laughing it is not always easy to understand what is happening with and to them. In this article, Jim Blair (Learning Disability Nursing Project Lead at the Royal College of Nursing and Clinical Advisor for Learning Disabilities at the Queens Nursing Institute) considers the ways people with learning disabilities can be supported to access the healthcare treatment they deserve but denied all too often.

NHS chief Simon Stevens has announced that a new taskforce will be set up to improve current specialist children and young people’s inpatient mental health, autism and learning disability services in England. News of the new taskforce is not the only initiative announced this past week to improve the experience of autistic children/teenagers in inpatient settings. 

71% of autistic adults in England aren't getting the support they need. This could mean up to 327,000 autistic adults aren’t getting help to do things other people take for granted, like socialising, managing money, or getting out and about.

The Care Quality Commission has pledged to review restrictive interventions (restraint, prolonged seclusion, and segregation) in a variety of settings.

Optometrists who rely on auto-refractors could be losing vital skills for preserving eye health in individuals with Down’s syndrome and other learning disabilities, according to research.

Significant concerns have been raised about the quality of investigations into deaths of patients with learning disabilities or mental ill health by the NHS, which could mean opportunities to improve care are being missed, according to a report.

Tim Smart, the interim chair of troubled Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, has resigned with immediate effect, citing “personal reasons”.

Eye health experts have called for a national scheme of longer, tailored sight tests for people with learning disabilities who are more likely to suffer problems or need glasses.

Nurses and healthcare workers have been issued with new guidance on caring for people with learning disabilities.

Cancer and coronary heart disease rates are a third lower in people with learning disabilities compared to the general population, but this may be because medical staff are missing the signs and not diagnosing them, research has found.

Care regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is carrying out a review of how NHS trusts identify, report, investigate and learn from deaths of people using their services – with a particular focus on people with a learning disability or mental health problem.

People with learning disabilities are being empowered to access health services through a range of books and interactive materials that have been developed by a service provider.

The learning disability nursing workforce has fallen by a third – 1,700 posts – since 2010, a new report has found.

A new health toolkit, written and developed by a team of nurses that aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people with learning disabilities on a day-to-day basis has been launched.