The researchers in this study set out to look at international comparisons at the European level in the health conditions and health risk factors of people with learning disabilities. They looked at people living in fully staffed residential services compared with those living in unstaffed family homes or independent houses with no formal support. The [read the full story…]
In 2009, researchers in Surrey completed an audit of pain recognition and management within the learning disability services there. One of the key recommendations from that audit was that staff in learning disability services should receive training in pain recognition and management. As a result, nearly 200 services in the locality (from an invitation list [read the full story…]
Physical factors can be a cause of some challenging behaviours in people with learning disabilities and this systematic review set out to determine what these conditions might be. The search covered the period 1990 and 2008and identified 45 studies. These looked at general medical conditions, motor impairment, epilepsy, sensory impairment, gastrointestinal disease, sleep disorders, dementia [read the full story…]
Anti-psychotic medications comprise between 30–50% of all psychotropics prescribed for people with learning disabilities as reported in this WELD post: This study set out to explore metabolic syndrome (a group of risk factors that occur together and increase the risk for coronary artery disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes in people with learning disabilities who [read the full story…]
This systematic review of prevalence rates of chronic health conditions in children with intellectual disability found 2,994 relevant studies published between 1996 to 2008. 31 studies were included that the authors felt had sufficient methodological quality. They found that the 6 most prevalent chronic health conditions were: Epilepsy (22.0/100), Cerebral palsy (19.8/100), Anxiety disorder (17.1/100), [read the full story…]
Public sector services have a legal duty to provide ‘reasonable adjustments’ for people with learning disabilities. This might mean removing physical barriers to access which is clearly important, but also includes the removal of barriers that exist as the result of the way the service is organised or delivered, ensuring that policies, procedures and [read the full story…]
