specialist-services

Today Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) condemns the “horrific reality” of conditions and treatment under which many young people with learning disabilities and autism are detained in mental health hospitals, “inflicting terrible suffering on those detained and causing anguish to their distraught families”.

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.

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

The number of people in inpatient psychiatric or learning disability beds fell between 2014 and 2016, according to an NHS survey.

Occupational Therapist Mark Keeble looks at how therapists can support autistic adults with behaviours that challenge to develop techniques to self-regulate their reactions to sensory stimulation.

The QPM is the only independent quality performance mark for organisations offering independent advocacy - an essential service for people who need support to express their needs and have increased choice and control in their lives.

Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust has accepted full responsibility for the death of Connor Sparrowhawk and has admitted that it was negligent and violated Connor’s and his family’s human rights.

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.

Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust must make significant improvements to protect patients in its mental health and learning disability services from the risk of harm, health regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has warned.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt expressed the government’s shock at the alleged failings at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust – where more than 1,000 unexpected deaths were not investigated between 2011 and 2015 – but has stopped short of calling for a public inquiry into the trust.

Updated guidance for providers detailing how to improve the health-based support they provide to people with learning disabilities, based on the learning of organisations that use the Health Charter, has been launched, along with a report.