|
1. INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY POLICY IN ENGLAND
Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disability for
the 21st Century
An extract from the White Paper published in 2000. To see the
full paper visit www.doh.gov.uk/learningdisabilities/strategy.htm
The term learning disabilities is used here, as it is the official
term for intellectual disability in England.
Definition
Valuing People defines learning disability as including the presence
of:
- A significantly reduced ability to understand new or complex
information, to learn new skills (impaired intelligence), with
- A reduced ability to cope independently (impaired social functioning);
- Which started before adulthood, with a lasting effect on development.
Learning disability does not include all those who have a learning
difficulty, which is more broadly defined in education legislation.
Numbers:
We estimate that there are around 210,000 people with severe
and profound learning disabilities. About 25 people per 1000 population
are thought to have mild to moderate learning disabilities. The
total learning disabled population in England is about 1.2 million.
Learning disabled people can be among the most disadvantaged
of an already disadvantaged group. You can't tell just by looking
that someone has a learning disability - not like physically disabled
people, or people with sight or even hearing problems.
And often learning disabled people live isolated lives, knowing
only their family and other people with learning disabilities.
Research published in 1999 found that only 30% had a friend who
was not either learning disabled or part of their family, or paid
to care for them. So over two thirds of people with learning disabilities
had no "outside" friends.
The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, made the point in his foreword
to Valuing People. He said:
"People with learning disabilities can lead full and rewarding
lives, as many already do. But others find themselves pushed to
the margins of our society. And almost all encounter prejudice,
bullying, insensitive treatment and discrimination at some time
in their lives. Such prejudice and discrimination - no less hurtful
for often being unintentional - has a very damaging effect. It
leads to your world becoming smaller, opportunities more limited,
a withdrawal from wider society so time is spent only with family,
carers, or other people with learning disabilities.
Background
Why was there a need for a new strategy on learning disability
services?
What were the problems people with learning disabilities faced?
They fell into three main categories:
- Social exclusion - learning disabled people can be among the
most isolated groups in our society.
- Inconsistency in service provision - people getting different
services in different parts of the country. 1999 report Facing
the Facts clearly showed a great variation across the country
in the availability and coverage of services.
- Management of services.
Social exclusion
This can include:
- Poor housing
- Difficulties in finding work
- Difficulties in using transport
- Few friends apart from families and carers
- Poor advocacy services
- Not many people using direct payments - a real way to make
voice and spending power heard.
Inconsistency
- Big differences in what councils spend and what people can
expect in terms of services.
- Some good day services, some bad.
Management
- Barriers to accessing the same health care as other citizens
- Social services and health service not working together
- Poor liaison within social services, often at the point of
transition, where adult services take over from children's services
- Services not responding to people as individuals - people
fitted to services instead of fitting services to people.
- Unqualified staff and poor training
Valuing People is based on four principles - rights, inclusion,
choice and independence. It is a cross-Government initiative,
which looks at everything from social services to health and education
to employment and housing.
It is the first White Paper on learning disability services for
thirty years, and the first White Paper to be published in both
a conventional form and a more straightforward, accessible form
so that people with learning disabilities could see for themselves
what the Government was proposing.
People with learning disabilities are:
- More likely to experience mental illness
- More prone to chronic health problems, epilepsy, physical
and sensory impairment.
- Poor oral health may lead to chronic dental disease
- Increasing life expectancy leading to more age related diseases
- stroke, heart disease, respiratory disease and cancer are
all likely to be of concern.
An increasing number of young people with severe and profound
disabilities have complex health needs.
The NHS Plan makes a commitment to care for all, including people
with learning disabilities, based on clinical need, shaping services
around needs of individual patients, families and carers and reducing
health inequalities.
Back to top
Next article: 2. Clinical Communication
Go to article: 1 | 2 | 3
| 4 | 5
| 6 | 7
| 8
|
