Learning Disability Health Checks Health Action Plan Meeting 30 th Jan 2009

Why do people with learning disabilities need health checks? There is lots of information that says that people with learning disabilities do not always get a good service when they go to see their family doctors. The information tells us that many people with learning disabilities have more health problems than other people. Some people do not ask for help when they have a problem and so the problem can get worse. A health check is a way of helping people to get the right care they need and to help stop peoples health getting worse.

Are health checks new? Up until now your family doctor did not have to offer special health checks for people with learning disabilities. Your doctor should have been offering you a check up if you have a health problem like mental health, epilepsy, thyroid problems, or are on regular medication. From April 2008 your family doctor can now get some extra money if he offers people with learning disability a health check. This is part of their new contract –it is something they have to do if they want a pay rise (extra money). It is known as a ‘direct enhanced service- and it is something that is happening across all of England.

What do doctors have to do? To get the extra money the government has said that there are some things that each doctors surgery has to do. If a doctors surgery does not do these things they will not get all the money. The doctors have to check which of their patients have a learning disability.

What do doctors have to do? 3 people from each doctors surgery have to come on some special learning disability training: –A lead doctor, –the lead nurse –either the person who manages the surgery or the lead receptionist The training is 3 ½ hours long. There are 13 sessions planned between now and May, but we may need more.

What does the training involve? The government has said what the training has to include. It says it should include: –What a learning disability is –How to check who has a learning disability –What health problems people have –What health action plans are –What health facilitation is –How to make health appointments better –Working with families and professionals –How to check consent –What the law says about not treating people equally

Who is delivering the training? The Government said that the Lead Health Facilitator should deliver the training. The Government said that community nurses should help. The government said that families and people with learning disabilities should be included in delivering the training.

What is happening in Leicestershire and Rutland? The Lead Health Facilitator is delivering the training. The community nurses are helping when they can. The Primary Care Trust is paying a parent and her daughter to deliver the training. The daughter talks about her experiences and about what doctors and nurses can do to make things better. The parent talks about her experiences and asks people to think about how they would have felt if it had been them, and if they had been the doctor would they have done things different. The parent asks them to help make sure people with learning disabilities are not treated unfairly and have the same chances in life.

What have people said? So far we have ran 5 sessions. Most of the people who have come on the training have said that they thought the best bits were when the parent and the daughter tell their stories. The stories have made them think about what they can do better and about how difficult it can be sometimes. They have said they will do lots of things differently. When all the training is done we could tell you what the people said they would do differently.

What else is happening? The Primary Care Trust is making a health check that will work on the doctors computers. The Strategic Health Authority are asking the Primary Care Trust every 3 months how many people have had a health check.

What else can we do? We need to find out if the people doing the health checks are doing a good job. We need to check why some people are not going for a health check. We need to find out if the health of people with learning disabilities is getting better.