Learning Disability Week 2020

For Learning Disability Week 2020 (15-21 June), Sarah Atkinson, Learning Disabilities Primary Care Liaison Nurse talks about the support on offer and the importance of health checks for people with Learning Disabilities.

"Check It Out" - free yearly health checks 

Do you support someone with a learning disability? Did you know about the free yearly health checks they can access?

As a team of learning disabilities nurses, we are passionate about working with other professionals and educating on person centred care.  We want to use this as an opportunity to raise awareness of the health checks and other vital work that the team members have been doing. 

The health checks are offered by GP Practices and it is important all health professionals and carers know about them and encourage people they work with to book in for and attend an appointment. Why are they so important you might ask? The reason is people with a learning disability can sometimes find it hard to know when they are unwell or recognise symptoms of illness which can lead to symptoms of ill health going unnoticed until a person becomes acutely unwell. These checks are therefore essential to promote good health, identify any unmet health needs and manage any existing conditions. This can also stop preventable hospital admissions and undue anxieties to the person who is unwell.

It is also an opportunity for patients to visit their GP Practice and build relationships with the staff. This allows people the time to talk about anything that is worrying them about their health and get advice.

It is essential for people with a learning disability to understand their health needs and be involved in the management as much as possible. There are lots of easy read resources out there that can help, and this also supports people to be able to make choices (no matter how big or small). 

A big part of this is the Health Action Plan which people will receive after their check, which lets them (and people who care for and support them) know what actions they need to take to improve or maintain their health in the next 12 months.

Reasonable adjustments made to ensure an equitable access to health services really help with person centred care. They don’t have to be complicated; it could be an easy read appointment letter or considering appointment times if a person needs support to get to the Practice. 

The Learning Disabilities Primary Care Liaison Nurses have been working with Clinical Commissioning Groups in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire on the “Check It Out” campaign. This campaign is designed to increase the awareness and uptake of the Annual Health Check by encouraging patients and carers to book an appointment.  You can find out more about the campaign at your GP Practice.

This might be delivered a little differently this year, but it is still very important to ask for and attend the Annual Health Check. 

An important part of making sure that people attend for the health check is raising awareness and spreading the word. All people with a learning disability from the age of 14 years can access them and ask to be part of the Learning Disability register at their GP Practice. To help spread the word to a wider audience, the “Check It Out” leaflets have also been produced in different languages including Czech, Polish, Punjabi, Romanian and Urdu. These leaflets can be accessed from GP surgeries, the CCG or from the Primary Care Liaison Nursing Team.  

Domestic Violence Easy Read Cards

Another important development is that I worked hard for months to produce a wallet sized easy read card to highlight the issue of domestic violence for people with a learning disability. These have recently been shared on social media and have attracted the interest of the Royal College of Nursing and NHS England and Wales. We hope the cards will be shared and used far and wide to support our patients to keep safe in their relationships.  

I'm so proud of these as it's such an important issue and making this information accessible to everyone is vital. If you know someone who would benefit from having one of these you can email the team: not-tr.City.PCLN@nhs.net, who will arrange to get one sent out.

Finally I’d just like to say how we are immensely proud of the way the team has pulled together to support each other, our colleagues and our patients with learning disabilities, their families and carers in these unprecedented times.