Learning Disability Today
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The British Psychological Society and the Royal College of Psychiatrists have published updated guidance on managing dementia in people with learning disabilities.
The aim is to enable those working in clinical and social care services to improve the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities who develop dementia, by providing guidance to inform assessment, diagnosis, interventions and support.
The revised guidance is aimed at clinicians in intellectual disabilities and older people’s mental health services and services for younger people with dementia. It should inform local decisions, taken by commissioners and providers, about which services provide which part of the care pathway, ensuring that all elements of this guidance are considered.
Dementia and people with learning disabilities still receive minimal focus
This report is a revision of the second edition of the 2015 guidance on dementia and people with intellectual disabilities. It has been developed by a working group of psychologists and psychiatrists from across all four nations, who collaborated on the publication of the third edition.
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The authors stated that since the original guidance was published, there has been a significant increase in awareness about dementia in the general population, accompanied by a proliferation of strategies and standards documents. However, dementia and people with intellectual disabilities still receive minimal focus at the national level.
- Further reading: Dementia and learning disability: common conditions made complex
Some areas of the guidance have only required minor changes, while others have undergone a more extensive rewrite. It aims to create a set of standards of good practice against which service provision can be benchmarked and audited, and to provide a quality outcome measure to evaluate what the person with a learning disability is experiencing in their care.
It also aims to promote the development of comprehensive and effective local services and reduce the number of individuals who are failed by current service provision.
