Healthy Living

Supporting People with Learning Disabilities to be Healthy

This page is to give advice to people with learning disabilities about being healthy and looking after themselves.

Doctors Surgeries

The Community Nurses in CTPLD are all linked to a Doctors Surgery now. This is to have better communication. There has been mixed response from the Doctors. We are now going to talk to the Practice managers and have some help from out Primary Care Trust link Practice Nurse.

We have a Practice Nurse called Mary who comes to every meeting. She is our link person from the Primary Care Trust and also knows a lot about the Doctor's Surgeries. She is going to help us by trying out some ideas at her Surgery.

 

Health Action Plans

We have some people who have a health action plan and others who have started one.

We need to do some training on how to start one and for health facilitators to support people with learning disabilities.

We have got £18,000 from the Learning Disability Development Fund to help people to get a health action plan. We are going to employ a person to help with this.

 

Dentists – The Teeth People

We have a link person for dentists. She is called Karen Gonzalez. The teeth people (dentists) have been working with day services to show people how to look after your teeth. They have also written a questionnaire to see what people's teeth are like and what help they get with this? This needs some more work.

Audiology – The Ear People

We have a link person for ears. She is called Katriona Williamson. We have a care pathway now. This is an easy way to get a service. They are also working on an easy to read leaflet with photographs. They are also making a diary for people to fill in.

Podiatry – The Foot People

We have a link person for feet. Her name is Katie Boichat. It is important to look after feet and nails, especially when you have diabetes. There is a clinic every 3 months and there is also a telephone number if there is an urgent need.

The Parapet – Breast Screening Lady

We have a link person. Her name is Martina. She came and talked about the service provided and that people could visit the Parapet before coming to have a screening. We are going to organise a visit. We want to support her with an easy to read leaflet

We still need to find out of women over 50 years to see if they have had breast screening. This will happen when we have more people in the CTPLD.

Sexual Health

We had a man come to talk to us about keeping sexual health and safety. He was from the Garden Clinic. He only visited once and we need to have a link person to the group.

Some of the Community Nurses are learning more about sexual health, but we need more understanding and information to help people with learning disabilities better.

Continence Service

We had a lady come to talk about the service. This service provides pads and advice. There are 2 clinics a week and anyone can come. They have started a newsletter. We could help them make this easy to read. We have only seen her once and need to have a link person to the group. We have a telephone number.

The Community Nurses from CTPLD and providers work closely with the continence service on a daily basis.

Exercise

We had a person from the Magnet Leisure Centre called Mark and Max from Brunel come to a meeting. They talked about what is available such as swimming (with carers free), the SMILE project for over 50's, and the Sensory Zone. We have a link person from Brunel to our group, but not from the Magnet yet.

Further Information

For further information, please contact the CTPLD team by telephone on 01628 670117 or by email at CTPLD@RBWM.gov.uk. You can also find out more out the CTPLD by clicking the following link to view the CTPLD Homepage.