Learning Disability Session

18 March 2015

How can gps can help people with a learning disability to look after their health?

Sometimes patients with a learning disability might find it hard to look after their health.

Our gp can help us look after our health.

Our gp can help make it easy for us to visit them.

Our gp can help make it easy for us to go and see other health workers too.

This paper is a list of things that we think are good ideas.

Ideas are in blue.

We are Health Matters.

A group of adults with a learning disability in Camden.

We try to make health services easier for people with a learning disability.

Getting the right support

Think about the kinds of things that people with a learning disability might find hard.

Think about things you could do that could help make it easier.

There might be things you could change about the way you work with everyone.

There might be ways you could give extra support to patients with a learning disability.

Let patients with a learning disability know they can ask for extra support.

It is not always very easy to know what support to ask for.

What support do you need? is a hard question for someone with a learning disability to answer.

So give people an idea of what support they can ask for.

Like this…. Would you like your information in easy read?

Would some extra time help you to understand?

You could keep a note of what support people need.

You could check it is still right at their once a year health check.

What does the law say?

There is an equal rights law that says people can ask for reasonable adjustments.

The law is called The Equality Act.

A reasonable adjustment is something to help make it easy for disabled people to use a service.

Make sure all your staff understand about making things easy for people with a learning disability.

Help all your staff to understand what things might be hard for people with a learning disability.

Like booking appointments or seeing someone they don’t know.

Like getting their information in small writing with no pictures.

Help all your staff to understand what it means to make a reasonable adjustment.

Like giving your patients their information in easy read.

See if you can find a way to make sure new workers understand these things quickly when they come to work at the gp surgery

Find a way to show your staff what support different patients need quickly.

Like keeping a note on the computer.

Communication

Sometimes people with a learning disability have their own way of communicating.

Everyone communicates, not just people who can speak.

We think everyone deserves to be included in their appointments.

We think everyone deserves to be listened to.

Ask us and the people with us if there are things you can do to help us communicate.

You could try keeping some things around to help you explain things, like pictures or objects.

Think about whether there are things you could keep around that might help us explain things to you.

Making choices

Make sure you understand the Mental Capacity Act law about making choices.

It says everyone has the right to try to choose about their health, even if they haven’t been able to choose before.

It says when someone can’t choose you have to listen to what their family carers say.

But it says that family carers can’t make a choice for an adult about health.

If someone needs help to choose please make sure they get the right support.

Think about how to help someone understand something difficult.

Make sure you know how to get in touch with an advocate if you need to.

If someone needs support to choose you could call the Advocacy Project in Camden on 0208 962 8695

There is a special type of advocate called an IMCA to help people make medical choices, call Voiceability for more information on 0845 0175 198

Who else can help patients with a learning disability in Camden?

Camden Learning Disability Service or CLDS

Camden Learning Disability Service is there to help people with a learning disability.

Sometimes people need extra support in their day to day life.

Sometimes this means people need extra support to look after their health.

If you don’t think someone is getting the right support, let them know they can contact the learning disability service.

You could offer to help them do it.

The learning disability service have social workers that can help people get the right support.

The learning disability service have a team of health workers that can give people support to look after their health.

The learning disability service has health access workers that help to make things easy for people with a learning disability to look after their health.

If you want information about how to make things easy for someone with a learning disability.

Or you think you have spotted a problem that might make it hard for someone with a learning disability to look after their health,

call the learning disability service on: 0207 974 3737

Or go to www.camden.gov.uk/clds

Family carers and support workers

Sometimes people with a learning disability have family or support workers to help them.

Family carers are not usually being paid for the work they do.

Family carers may have their own health needs.

They may need extra support from their gp too in their own appointments.

Support workers are paid for the work they do.

Their job is to support the person they are with.

Help people with a learning disability stay in control of how our family and support workers are included.

Ask us if we want them to stay

Make sure we are happy for you to share information with them.

Ask us if we want them to help us explain something.

If someone has a support worker or family carer to help them

it might be harder for them to fit in with how you book your appointments.

People can miss out because their support worker doesn’t start work early enough to call at 8:30

Or because they only get support a few days a week it means it’s harder to get an appointment that fits.

Think about what you could do to make it easier to book appointments.

Remember people with a learning disability can be family carers too.

They might need extra support to understand what’s happening for the person they care for.

Think about how you might support a parent or family carer with a learning disability.

Health Action Plans

Health action plans are booklets that can help people with a learning disability manage their health.

Because we are in charge of them they can help us stay in control of our health.

They can help us remember about our health.

They can help us explain about our health to other health workers and people who support us.

They are not just for gps but for all health workers.

They can help all the health workers to work together.

When people come for a once a year health check you should check if they have a health action plan.

People with a learning disability don’t have to have one but they might want one.

You could offer to help them fill one in if they want one.

You can ask for a blank one from Camden Learning Disability Service.

Find a way to make sure all the health workers in your surgery know about health actions plan.

When patients with a learning disability come to see you, ask if they have a health action plan.

If they do, offer to have a look together.

Offer to write in about what you have done together in an appointment.

Sending patients to see another health worker

Sometimes you need to send a patient to see someone else,

like the hospital or the pharmacy.

Think about how you will make sure the patient knows what support they can get from the place you are sending them.

Think about how you can understand what support the patient might need.

Think about how you will make sure the place you are sending them knows they need extra support.

Sometimes the forms you use have spaces to say if someone needs extra support.

We know that just writing about someone being disabled in a letter doesn’t always mean that the place you are sending them will make sure they get support.

If someone is going to the hospital, please contact the learning disability liaison nurse in the hospital.

At the Royal Free you can ask for Paulette Blackwood.

At UCLH you can ask for Tim Buck.

They are nurses that support patients with a learning disability to use the hospital.

They support people who need to stay in the hospital.

They support people who are going for an appointment.

Please let your patients with a learning disability know they can ask for this help.

Even if they are not planning to go to hospital, they might have to go in an emergency.

If someone is going to hospital you could ask them if they have a hospital passport.

Hospital passports

Hospital passports are papers that help people with a learning disability communicate with the hospital staff.

They help health workers in the hospital get to know us.

They help make sure people get the right support.

We know staff in the hospitals are getting better at looking at hospital passports but may need reminding to use them.

They should not be used as the only way to make sure people get the support they need in hospital.

They have a red bit for things people need to know in an emergency.

They have an amber bit for things people should know.

They have a green bit for helping people like ward staff get to know our likes and dislikes.

You could ask your patients with a learning disability if they have a hospital passport at their once a year health check.

You could ask if they are up to date at the health check too.

You could keep some blank ones in the doctors rooms to show people.

You can get blank ones from Camden Learning Disability Service.

Once a year health checks

The government says that people with a learning disability should have a health check once a year.

They are called annual health checks

We know lots of people do not understand the word annual.

So we think it is best to call them once a year health checks.

This is important because it helps people know when to go for another one.

People with a learning disability can have extra health problems.

People with a learning disability can miss out because it is harder for them to use health services.

People with a learning disability can find it harder to understand how to look after their health.

So people with a learning disability can find it harder to stay in control of their health.

Once a year health checks are important because they check how we are.

They can spot any health problems early on and help us deal with them.

Doctors can get paid extra to do once a year health checks for people with a learning disability through the DES.

Find out more about taking part in the DES by speaking to Camden Clinical Commissioning Group.

There is a list of things doctors should cover in a once a year health check.

In this booklet we have given you lots of ideas of other ways you can use the health check to get to know your patients with a learning disability.

Make sure you know who your patients with a learning disability are.

Sign up to give your patients with a learning disability a once a year health check.

Think about how you will use the health check to help your patients with a learning disability get the right support to look after their health.

Help your patients get letters and information in easy read

This page is in easy read.

It has colour pictures.

It breaks big ideas down into small ones.

It uses easy words and big writing.

It has a picture for every idea.

You can get help from the Camden Easy Info Group – surge@advocacyproject.org.uk

get advice from the accessible information worker at Camden Learning Disability Service

or find easy health information at www.easyhealth.org.uk

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Do you want to find out more?

There is a good website that has training videos and information for gps about treating patients with a learning disability:

http://www.gmc-uk.org/learningdisabilities/104.aspx

Health Matters can help you think about how to make things easy for people with a learning disability:

surge@advocacyproject.org.uk or call 07946 505 064

Camden Surge project can help you to train your staff to understand what can help patients with a learning disability or make easy info:

http://www.advocacyproject.org.uk/service/training-people/

surge@advocacyproject.org.uk

Camden Learning Disability Service can help you and your patients with a learning disability:

call the learning disability service on: 0207 974 3737

Or go to www.camden.gov.uk/clds

Easyhealth has some good ideas about making things easy for your patients and lots of examples of easy info:

www.easyhealth.org.uk