Learning disabilities - key issues
Education and empowerment
Although adults and children with learning disabilities and their families have the right to live full and independent lives as part of their local communities, their health care needs are often unmet. Education is vital to enable the self-management of diabetes and people with learning disabilities can play an important part in this process.
Derbyshire County Primary Care Trust has produced an information pack - Support for people with learning disabilities (PDF 448KB) [see how to access PDF files]. Written by a diabetes specialist nurse and a learning disabilities nurse, the pack contains a booklet called 'You have diabetes'. The booklet is written in simple accessible language and contains lots of pictures. Readers are guided through it by a character, Sam, who also has a learning disability.
Barriers such as communication and a patient's levels of understanding must be taken into consideration when planning an individual's programme of care. However people with learning disabilities can and should be involved in the management of their diabetes. "People with learning disabilities must be seen for what they are able to do and not what they are unable to do" (Napthine 2001, page 22).
Employment
The Department of Health's strategy 'Valuing employment now: real jobs for people with learning disabilities' sets out to radically improve employment opportunities for people with moderate and severe learning disabilities. "People with profound and complex disabilities should not be excluded from the world of work" (Department of Health, 2009b, p.13). This strategy applies to England only. However, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is working with the Scottish Government and Welsh Assembly to identify how the relevant parts of this strategy can be incorporated in their work, to support people with learning disabilities move into and retain paid employment.
Equality and diversity
In June 2008, Diabetes UK became the first charity in the UK to create an equality and diversity team. The team is dedicated to helping diverse groups including people with learning disabilities.
The team consists of four diverse community officers (DCOs) who will raise awareness of diabetes by building relationships with organisations from diverse groups. By working with a range of health and social care practitioners they will help to identify the needs of these groups and develop, maintain and evaluate services to meet those needs. For further details, go to the Diabetes UK website: Diabetes UK becomes the first charity to create an equality and diversity team.
References
Full details of the bracketed citations in the text above and, in many cases, links to the actual documents are available in the Reference List within this resource. Go to the Reference list
For more information go to: learning disabilities