Population 26,125 (2010)194 identified clients with LD on the

PrimaryCare register.

Distance covered 150 miles.

Learning Disabilities Collaborative ProjectFunded through Equally Well

Focusing on health Inequalities

Current Service Provision

2 Learning Disability NursesAdministratorPsychiatrist with LD interestMH and LD lead Role.Local LES

Potential Outcomes of the RoleKey Staff Primary/Secondary care

TrainingRegular Health ScreeningLD/Autism RegisterHealth Promotion/Health Information

Health Improvement PolicyPlanned Dental CareImplementing best Practice – working

with other Health BoardExplore possible models for informed

choices –eg Life Books, Person-centered planning

Patient Focused Input

Linking with local Advocacy Group

Initial ReturnSecondary Stage of Health InterviewsSevere/Profound need and carers

COMMUNICATION• We like getting letters sent to us that we

can make sense of them ourselves.

• Letters are difficult to understand if you can’t read and even sometimes they are still hard to understand when you can read.

COMMUNICATION

• Use big print and pictures and diagrams that help us to understand what you are trying to tell us.

• Make sure you talk to us as well as our parent/carer, it’s good when we can go away and talk about it afterwards.

VISITING THE HOSPITAL• We think it might help us to get around if

you used colours or numbers on your directions – have a colour code or a number code.

• The hospital is very clean and that is important to us.

DOCTORS• It helps if you see the same Doctor or a

Doctor that you know because they know your needs.

• It’s difficult to talk to a Doctor you don’t know especially telling them about our learning difficulty.

• When you keep seeing different Doctors, you have to keep repeating your needs over and over.

DOCTORS• Don’t talk too fast, remember to talk

slowly and don’t use big words.

• It would be helpful if Doctors used pictures and diagrams to help us to understand.

OPERATIONS• Good to have someone you know

(parent/carer) waiting just outside the theatre so that they we can see them quickly in case we panic when we come round.

• Ask us if we want you to explain every thing to us about what is going to happen. Some of us like to know and some of us don’t – it can make us feel pretty scared.

OPERATIONS• If we don’t want to know, don’t tell our

Parent or Carer in front of us.

• We can feel quite anxious going to the theatre – it would be good to have some one we know going with us.

CONFIDENTIALITY

• It would be good to have a private place to talk with the Doctor because some times the hospital is so busy and noisy and sometimes people just think they have to talk loudly to us and then everybody knows everything.

• Sometimes it is difficult for us to talk quietly because there is a lot of noise around us and again everyone hears every thing.

• You have to talk quietly when you are having a conversation with friends and family on the ward, sometimes it is very difficult for some of us to talk quietly and concentrate especially when there is a lot going on around us.

ACCIDENT & EMERGENCY• We wish it was quicker because when we

have to wait a long time we start to panic.

• Would it help if we said we had a learning disability from the very beginning?

• Everyone is always really nice and talks to you all the time, this helps to stay calm.

MEDICINE INFORMATION• Pictures and diagrams can help us to

remember information.

• It is important to tell us how important our medicine is to us – we are good at remembering stuff like that.