If you are pregnant, or have children under 4 and you are on means-tested benefits, you may be able to get food vouchers and free vitamins. You also qualify if you are under 18 and you are pregnant. All applications must be supported by a midwife or health visitor.
For details, call Healthy Start on 0345 607 6823 or visit www.healthystart.nhs.uk
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We have been receiving quite a number of enquiries from families unsure of how they can best support their family member who has Down’s syndrome during this period when we are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. It is clear that all individuals with Down’s syndrome would be considered as “vulnerable” due to their learning disability. This is because :
1. People with a learning disability often experience health inequalities, making access to some NHS services more difficult;
2. Some people with a learning disability may find it harder to communicate symptoms and so may need greater vigilance to assess whether they have become infected (especially in the early stages) or if they are becoming more unwell and in need of medical intervention;
3. Some individuals with a learning disability may find it harder to understand the concepts of social-distancing and may be reliant on people coming into their home to provide personal care, making social-distancing more difficult;
4. A proportion of individuals with Down’s syndrome may additionally have other underlying health conditions (especially cardiac and respiratory conditions).
Additionally, some people with Down’s syndrome will meet the criteria for being considered as “extremely vulnerable” . If so, they should have received a letter from the NHS confirming this. People in this group will have one of these additional health conditions :
1. Solid organ transplant recipients.
2. People with specific cancers:
• people with cancer who are undergoing active chemotherapy
• people with lung cancer who are undergoing radical radiotherapy
• people with cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma who are at any stage of treatment
• people having immunotherapy or other continuing antibody treatments for cancer
• people having other targeted cancer treatments which can affect the immune system, such as protein kinase inhibitors or PARP inhibitors
• people who have had bone marrow or stem cell transplants in the last 6 months, or who are still taking immunosuppression drugs
3. People with severe respiratory conditions including all cystic fibrosis, severe asthma and severe COPD.
4. People with rare diseases and inborn errors of metabolism that significantly increase the risk of infections (such as SCID, homozygous sickle cell).
5. People on immunosuppression therapies sufficient to significantly increase risk of infection
If you feel that the person you support might be in the ‘extremely vulnerable’ group but have not been contacted by the NHS, please follow this up with your GP or paediatrician.
Guidance from the NHS on how best to support ‘vulnerable’ and ‘extremely vulnerable’ people is available here: https://bit.ly/3c3ghgZ
If you would like to discuss any of these issue, please be assured our helpline is operating as normal on 0333 12 12 300. ... See MoreSee Less
Guidance for those who provide unpaid care to friends or family
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