22 October 2012
Guide Launched to Improve Services for Patients with Learning Disabilities
A commissioning guide to improve the health of people with learning disabilities has been launched by the Royal College of General Practitioners, to help Clinical Commissioning Groups commission the most appropriate and effective services.
Guide launched to improve services for patients with learning disabilities
A commissioning guide to improve the health of people with learning disabilities has been launched by the Royal College of General Practitioners, to help Clinical Commissioning Groups commission the most appropriate and effective services.
The guidance has been produced in partnership with the Improving Health and Lives Learning Disability team at the Public Health Observatory, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and includes all of the recommendations from the interim Winterbourne View report published in Spring 2012.
People with learning disabilities now number around 1.1 million in the England, 900,000 of them are adults. Once family are also factored in, it is estimated that learning disabilities affect the lives of at least 3 million people.
The proportion of emergency admissions to general hospitals is substantially larger for people with learning disabilities than for those who do not have learning disabilities (50% versus 31%).
Many live on the poorer margins of society. In 2010, half of the deaths of people with learning disabilities in England happened at or below the age of 56.1
Dr Matt Hoghton, RCGP Clinical Champion for Learning Disabilities said: "We must act now to ensure that health care pathways for these vulnerable patients are firmly in place throughout their lives using partnerships between patients, carers, GPs, specialist community services, social care and secondary care.
“Some areas are already doing this, but it is not widespread across the country and we need to ensure that the care of these patients is seen as a top priority. We tested this guidance with three pathfinder CCGs and they have given us excellent feedback, but we need to get the messages out more widely. Some hospitals have Learning Disability Liaison Nurses who have proved themselves to be invaluable, forming links with local practices and hospital staff to ensure services are as joined-up as possible and reflect patient need. If we get it right for this vulnerable group, we get it right for all of us.”
Neal Kinsella, a Trustee for the Charity My Life, My Choice, attended the launch and spoke to GPs and commissioners about how they could make a difference to people living with learning disabilities such as himself. He said: “We need good specialist services and more partnerships between services. We particularly want to encourage more commissioners to work with self advocacy groups, which are already in place in their areas.”
Sue Turner from Improving Health and Lives Learning Disability Public Health Observatory, said: “Commissioning services for people with learning disabilities is a substantial test of working together in effective partnerships and, through this, securing better health and support for local people while safeguarding this most vulnerable group of our population.
“People with learning disabilities experience health inequalities which impact on both the quality and length of their lives. Some of these inequalities are avoidable, and CCGs will play a vital role in reducing these unacceptable inequalities. There is a wealth of good practice guidance and resources already out there, as well as the expertise of people with learning disabilities, family carers and specialist learning disability services to draw on. The guide signposts CCGs to many of these resources. It will be vital for CCGs to use these resources if better health for people with learning disabilities is to become a reality.
Dr Ian Hall, Chair of the Faculty of Psychiatry of Intellectual Disability, at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “We cannot ignore what happened at Winterbourne View. We must provide the best possible services for people with learning disabilities, including those who need to be in hospital settings. This guide includes explicit guidance of how to achieve that, so that all providers can be brought up to the standard of the best.”
The practical guide is designed to support Clinical Commissioning Groups with local authorities and Learning Disability Partnership Boards, to commission health services in ways that achieve better health outcomes for people with learning disabilities in a challenging financial climate. Whilst local authorities will lead commissioning for a considerable proportion of services, CCGs must take responsibility for leading the commissioning of specialist and general health services for people with learning disabilities from PCTs.
The guidance has had significant input from a number of organisations and groups including the Strategic Health Authority Learning Disability Leads group, the Professional Senate, the Faculty of Psychiatry (Learning Disabilities) Commissioning sub-group, the Valuing People Now Health Steering Group.
The guidance is available on the RCGP website at www.rcgp.org.uk/circ and on the Improving Health and Lives Learning Disability Public Health Observatory website, which also features easy-read versions of the document.
ENDS
References
1. People with Learning Disabilities 2011 pg.19 http://www.improvinghealthandlives.org.uk/publications/1063/People_with_Learning_Disabilities_in_England_2011
Further Information
RCGP Press office - 020 3188 7576/7575
Out of hours: 0203 188 7659
press@rcgp.org.uk
Notes
The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has made learning disabilities one of its priorities as part of the work of its Clinical Innovation and Research Centre.
The Guidance document will also be updated in March next year to include any further recommendations from the final Winterbourne View report.
My Life, My Choice is a self-advocacy organisation run by and for people with learning difficulties in Oxfordshire. http://mlmcuk.wordpress.com/about/
The Improving Health and Lives Learning Disability Public Health Observatory is a collaboration between three organisations: the NHS North East Public Health Observatory based at the Wolfson Research Institute at the University of Durham Stockton campus, the Centre for Disability Research at the University of Lancaster and the National Development Team for Inclusion. It was set up, in April 2010, as a three year programme following one of the recommendations of the Report of the Independent Inquiry into Access to Healthcare for People with Learning Disabilities, the Michael report.
http://www.improvinghealthandlives.org.uk/
http://www.ndti.org.uk/
The Faculty of Psychiatry of Intellectual Disability, at the Royal College of Psychiatrists aims to actively engage over 2000 members in expanding knowledge about the psychiatry of intellectual disability and in the development of policy that promotes the well-being of people with intellectual disabilities.
http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/specialties/faculties/intellectualdisability.aspx
The Royal College of General Practitioners is a network of more than 46,000 family doctors working to improve care for patients. We work to encourage and maintain the highest standards of general medical practice and act as the voice of GPs on education, training, research and clinical standards.
www.rcgp.org.uk