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The purpose of this paper is to report on trends in the provision of health checks for adults with learning disabilities over the period 2008/9‐2011/12.

Analysis of data collected by the Information Centre for Health and Social Care from Primary Care Trusts in England.

Over the four years the percentage of eligible adults receiving a health check has consistently increased and now stands at 53 percent. There remain marked variations across both Strategic Health Authority areas and Primary Care Trusts.

There remains considerable distance to travel before minimum standards of satisfactory performance in the provision of health checks are achieved nationally. It is important to consider possible obstacles to provision and how these can be addressed to improve uptake further.

The paper examines consistency of good and poor performance by local areas over time. It is clear that significant improvements are required in a number of strategic health authority and primary care trust areas if minimum standards are to be met.

The purpose of this paper is to present information from the Joint Health and Social Care Self-Assessment Framework (JHSCSAF) on reported rates of cervical cancer, breast cancer and bowel cancer screening for eligible people with learning disabilities in England in 2012/2013 compared to screening rates for the general population.

Between 94 and 101 Learning Disability Partnership Boards, as part of the JHSCSAF, provided information to allow the calculation of rates of cervical cancer, breast cancer and bowel cancer screening in their locality, for eligible people with learning disabilities and for the population as a whole.

At a national level, reported cancer screening coverage for eligible people with learning disabilities was substantially lower than for the population as a whole (cervical cancer screening 27.6 per cent of people with learning disabilities vs 70 per cent of total population; breast cancer screening 36.8 per cent of people with learning disabilities vs 57.8 per cent of total population; bowel cancer screening 28.1 per cent of people with learning disabilities vs 40.5 per cent of the general population). There were considerable geographical variations in reported coverage for all three screening programmes.

Consistent with previous research, localities in England report cancer screening rates for eligible people with learning disabilities considerably below those of the general population. There is an urgent need to address data availability and quality issues, as well as reasonable adjustments to cancer screening programmes to ensure uniformly high rates of cancer screening for people with learning disabilities across England.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the first 15 months of operation of an innovative specialist national public health observatory for intellectual disability.

The paper provides a narrative account of aims and achievements of the service.

In the first 15 months of operation the observatory has: made available to those involved in commissioning health and social care services, a wealth of information on the health needs of people with intellectual disabilities; identified specific improvements that could viably be made to increase the quality of future information; and begun working with local agencies to support them in making the best use of the available information.

People with intellectual disabilities experience significant health inequalities. This paper describes an innovative approach to helping local agencies make the best use of available information in order to commission services that may reduce these inequalities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent of compliance of commissioners and providers of hospital services in England with their duty under equalities legislation to be aware of patients with intellectual disabilities as a first step to making appropriate provision for their consequent specific needs.

National survey of healthcare commissioners undertaken as part of an annual learning disabilities services audit.

In total, 41.4 per cent of local areas were unable to supply information about numbers of people with intellectual disabilities among those admitted to hospital, 46.7 and 48 per cent, respectively, could not supply this information about out-patient and accident and emergency department attenders. Figures supplied by those able to provide data varied very substantially and overall were so low as to suggest considerable numbers had been missed.

The study is testing what local health commissioners are able to find out from hospitals. The authors do not know the accuracy of the data they reported.

The study suggests approaching half of healthcare commissioners in England have little or no information about the extent of proper adjustment of hospital care for people with intellectual disability in their area. Their responsibility to assure this has been repeatedly asserted by government.

The study indicates a need for more work to improve hospital care for people with intellectual disabilities.

This was a government sponsored national study to which local healthcare commissioners were expected to contribute.

This paper seeks to discuss the development of a prototype index of the factors influencing mental wellbeing in local areas in England.

To support developments in mental health policy, a prototype version of an index of the extent of factors affecting wellbeing was developed for the 149 local government areas (local authorities). The work was based on a well‐developed conceptualisation of factors affecting mental wellbeing set out in a current Department of Health background paper. This identified five domains of relevant factors with positive and negative influences in each. For each of the five domains (“a positive start in life”, “resilience and a safe and secure base”, “integrated physical and mental health” “sustainable, connected communities”, and “meaning and purpose”), the authors attempted to find proxy measures of positive and risk factors among routinely collected government statistics. This proved difficult; measures for positive factors in three domains and risk factors in four domains were identified. These were combined to give scores for overall positive and negative influences on wellbeing and a resulting overall index. This was done using the methods developed for the English Index of Multiple Deprivation.

Positive factor scores are generally higher in rural areas, particularly the West Midlands, Bedfordshire, and Cambridgeshire, a southerly strip from Somerset and Dorset to Surrey, and Yorkshire, and Northumberland in the north. In London, Richmond, Bromley, and Havering score highly. High‐risk factor scores are generally seen in most urban areas, with a band of high scores from Liverpool and Manchester, through the West Yorkshire towns to Hull and Scunthorpe, clusters in the North East around Tyneside and Teesside and central London, particularly Hackney, Haringey, Islington, Southwark, Lambeth, and Kensington and Chelsea. In London, Richmond, Harrow, and Redbridge have notably low scores. Some notable regional differences were seen in the patterns of positive and risk rankings. The North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the North West stand out as having generally higher positive scores for any level of risk than Midland and Southern regions; London authorities have the lowest positive – in relation to risk scores.

The authors hope that the publication of a pilot study may prove helpful in identifying some of the issues which will need to be tackled if a fully working index in this area is to be developed.

The purpose of this paper is to describe trends in the age-standardised mortality rate and life expectancy of people with learning disabilities in Sheffield over three decades and to compare these with trends in the general population of England and Wales.

Data were extracted from the Sheffield Case Register and compared with data published by the Office for National Statistics for England and Wales.

There was a sustained reduction in age-standardised mortality rates and a sustained increase in life expectancy for people with intellectual disabilities over the 33-year period. These changes are extremely similar to those observed in the general population of England and Wales.

There is little evidence of any closing of the gap in age-standardised mortality rates or life expectancy between people with intellectual disabilities and the general population.

Two censuses, from 2010 and 2013, respectively, shed light on the trend in use of in-patient psychiatric care for people with learning disability or autism following the BBC documentary exposing abuse of patients at Winterbourne View. The purpose of this paper is to consider the implications of the detailed trends for future care for this group.

Published data from a recent (September 2013) census are compared with the re-analysis of a census undertaken by the Care Quality Commission in March 2010.

An overall 35 per cent reduction in numbers of in-patients is made up of larger falls in groups generally easier to discharge (older, female, in general as opposed to secure units). There is also substantial variation around the country.

There are some uncertainties about the comparability of the two censuses and the question of how complete enumeration was of people with learning disabilities in general mental illness beds.

The paper raise the question of whether the beds that are reducing fastest may be those most likely to be of value to a high quality and sustainable service in the long term.

The aim of this paper is to report on the age‐specific administrative prevalence of learning disabilities in England.

The paper's approach is secondary analysis of data from national education, health and social care agencies.

There is an abrupt decline in the age‐specific administrative prevalence of learning disabilities at the point of transition to adult services.

The results highlight the existence of a “hidden majority” of adults with learning disabilities.

The data in this paper have implications for commissioning better health services for people with learning disabilities. First, health information systems should incorporate better ways of identifying patients with mild and moderate learning disabilities. Second, consideration should be given to the extension of annual health checks to include all young people who have had a Statement of Special Educational Needs.

The purpose of this paper is to use the findings of the Confidential Inquiry into Premature Deaths of People with Learning Disabilities, to estimate the likely annual number of deaths of people with learning disabilities in England that would be amenable to healthcare, or both amenable and preventable.

The study uses two scaling approaches, one based on age profiles of the population of the study area and of the country, the other on General Practice Quality and Outcome Framework (QOF) learning disability register statistics.

National estimates of the annual number of deaths either amenable to healthcare or both amenable and preventable were 1,413 using the age‐based scaling approach and 1,238 using the QOF‐based approach. The two estimates are reasonably close, and represent about three and a half people a day or 25 a week.

The likely accuracy of the estimates depends on how representative of the country the study area is. There are reasons for thinking that people with learning disability are, if anything, likely to be more accurately recognised and better treated there. Both influences would have the effect of reducing national estimates using the authors’ methods. This suggests they should be seen as a minimum.