The DSA will be closely following how the Department of Health and Social Care responds to the recommendations made in the 4th annual report of The Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Programme, published yesterday (16 July 2020). The LeDeR programme, established in 2015, aims to reduce early deaths and health inequalities for people with a learning […]
The Down’s Syndrome Association is involved in an international study looking at the effects of COVID-19 in people who have Down’s syndrome. This is an extremely important study, since COVID-19 is a ‘novel’ virus, unknown to the medical community until the beginning of this year. As yet, we knew very little about how severely affected […]
By Sarah, Lauren’s Mum In addition to having Down’s syndrome, in her teens Lauren was diagnosed with severe verbal dyspraxia and ASD with significant oppositional behaviour and demand avoidance. These diagnoses removed the stigma from us of “failing parents” and opened doors to get the right level of support. In August 2018 Lauren moved into […]
Vinay, our colleague at the DSA, is very keen on exercise and health. He’s shared some top tips with us on how to keep fit and healthy at home. He first wrote this list for winter exercise, but it is just as important to stay active while we are being asked to stay at home. […]
The government has announced it will pilot and roll out mandatory learning disability training for all relevant NHS healthcare professionals. It comes in response to campaigning from ourselves and thousands of others following grave concerns about the widely recognised health inequalities experienced by individuals with a learning disability. Read the ‘Right to be heard’ report […]
Earlier this year, the DSA was pleased to be involved in shaping new guidance around growing older with a learning disability. We responded to a National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) consultation on developing new standards for services to adopt. These have now been published. It covers all settings where care and support is provided, […]
The Down’s Syndrome Association is horrified by the details revealed today about the death of ‘Jo-Jo’. It is appalling to read about yet another person who had Down’s syndrome, and their family, being let down by the health and social care agencies that were supposed to be supporting them. The Safeguarding Adults Review published in […]
A new app designed to help people with Down’s syndrome make healthier eating and exercise choices, has been downloaded more than 500 times in its first three weeks. Created by our DSActive team, the ‘Health Swap’ app aims to tackle the statistic that more than 70% of people with Down’s syndrome are overweight or obese, […]
Today sees the culmination of coordinated work across the DSA with the submission of our response to The Department of Health and Social Care consultation on mandatory learning disability training for health and care professionals. For a long while now we have been concerned about the variability in quality of healthcare individuals with Down’s syndrome […]
This blog is a summary of findings of a completed research study led by Stewart Morrison of the University of Brighton. Foot and ankle pain in children and young people are quite common and can range from skin and nails issues through to more complex bone and soft-tissue problems. Foot and ankle pain are often […]
