Learning Disability Advice for Primary Care Staff

Learning Disability Advice Email Address: CLDTGPadvice@covwarkpt.nhs.uk

The Community Learning Disability Team (CLDT) have set up an email address that can be used by practice based staff seeking advice related to working with a patient who has a learning disability.

Queries may include:

• Reasonable adjustments
• Mental capacity / best interest decisions
• STOMP/psychotropic medication.  

Please note that this does not replace the usual referral mechanisms for CLDT

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Learning Disabilities Annual Health Checks

Follow this link for dedicated Gateway page

Learning Disability Service

Telephone number: 0300 200 0011
Referral Criteria: Central Booking Service
The multidisciplinary teams offer services to adults with a learning disability, and comprise of Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Community Nurses, Occupational Therapist, Physiotherapists, Support Workers, speech and language therapy and aromatherapy.

Music and art therapy is also available in some areas.

The teams operate an open referral system, meaning that anyone can make a referral to them for support with their health care.

Please click on link on right for referral form

Health Facilitation and Acute Liaison

The team is also part of the community learning disability service. The team ensure that adults with learning disabilities receive the health care they need to live healthy lives and are treated as equal citizens within society. The team has identified nurses to work and liaise with the local acute hospitals covering University Hospitals of Coventry and Warwickshire, George Eliot Hospital, Warwick Hospital, Solihull Hospital, Good Hope Hospital and Heartlands Hospital. The nurses support people through hospital admissions.

Contact Details

Coventry and Rugby CLDT: Tel 02476 324380 Team manager: Lisa Jones

North Warwickshire CLDT: Tel 02476 315867 Team manager: Catherine Watt

South Warwickshire CLDT: Tel 01926 317746 Team manager : Amy Crofts Community manager: Sue Cory

Referrals via CBS: Tel 0300 200 0011

Learning disability categories

Learning Disabilities are categorised into four degrees of severity: mild, moderate, severe and profound. Psychometric testing, which scores an individual’s intelligence quotient, can assess this.

Identification of a learning disability

The following indicators may lead to identification of a learning disability in an individual.

The individual may be:

• unable to tell the time;
• unable to distinguish between different coins;
• unable to do simple arithmetic;
• unable to say how old they are or know their date of birth;
• have difficulty recognising numbers, particularly over 10;
• have difficulty reading simple words and sentences;

Which school did they attend? e.g. ‘special school’ – see lists below:

Where does the person live? e.g. sheltered accommodation.

What does the person do for a job? e.g. attends a day centre.

What is a learning disability?

Learning disability may be defined as a state of arrested global development, occurring pre-, peri- or post natally.

Some people with a learning disability may have an identifiable cause for their condition, for example genetic condition such as Down’s syndrome.

For many patients it is not possible to identify the primary cause of learning disability – the important factor to recognise is the functioning ability of the individual patient.

People with a learning disability present with a wide spectrum of care needs, ranging from the person who is totally dependant on others for all aspects of care, to individuals who, while appearing independent, have special health needs such as challenging behaviour, mental health problems or epilepsy.

A learning disability is not an illness. It is a permanent condition, but with the right kind of help many people can acquire practical and social skills, even if this may take them longer than usual.

Learning disability is nearly always present from birth, though this is sometimes not recognised until children fail to reach milestones in their development such as sitting or beginning to talk.

Like the rest of the population, people with learning disabilities have very diverse personalities and characteristics. People’s background and family circumstances will also vary and these, together with the nature of the degree of disability, will help to determine what it means for a particular person to have a learning disability.

The nature of people’s learning disability varies widely and will affect the kind of support that they may require. Someone with a learning disability finds it more difficult to understand new or complicated information. They also find it harder than other people to learn new skills. These may be practical things like tying shoelaces or social skills such as holding a conversation. Some people may not speak and need to find other ways of communicating with those around them. Some need help with everyday things like getting dressed or a cup to tea. Others will live quite independently with much less assistance.

Unlike mental illness, an impairment of mind cannot be reversed and therefore cannot be ‘cured’ because it results from damage to the brain or nervous system before, during or after birth.

It is important not to confuse learning disability with the following:

• Learning difficulty
• Mental illness
• Brain damage in adulthood
• Cerebralpalsyandepilepsy
• Specificscholasticproblems
• Learning disability does not include all those with a learning difficulty

Learning difficulty is a term used by some agencies in the content of special education to differentiate from the health needs of people with intellectual impairments (learning disabilities).