Taking control of their health – self care for people with learning disabilities

38^th International Conference on Nursing & Healthcare

October 16-18, 2017 | New York, USA

Mary Codling

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

There is persistance evidence that despite developments in health services over the last decade people with learning disabilities are still reported as having greater unmet health needs than the general population. Ample attempts have been made to engage the population of people with learning disabilities to access health services alongside a range of developed health promotion activities. Despite these initatives evidence has shown that such interventions are not sustainable. It could be argued that due to their cognitive impairment people with learning disabilities are inhibited from recognising and understanding health risk and health promotion. What we do known however is that people with learning disabilities can learn from their own and others emotional and social experiences. This session discusses and describes the development and delivery of a psychosocial, person centred approach that was delivered to people with learning disabilities to teach them about their health. Participants feedback showed that the course improved their socialisation, pain management, emotional balance and awareness of communicating about their health. The content of the course and its delivery was developed into a guide that could be used by other services wishing to adopt this approach.