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 receive and by the health inequalities they experience. This is simply unacceptable and something that we strive to change.
Whether it is the submission of a response to a Government consultation like today; the provision of up-to-date information through one of our health series resources; advocacy and support to family-carers who call our Helpline; or direct provision of training to health professionals by our training team; the solutions to these issues are multifaceted. As our consultation response states, the call for mandatory learning disability training for health professionals is welcome, but by no means all that is needed.
In a separate letter to the Care Minister Caroline Dinenage MP last week, we highlighted the difficulties many families encounter in securing appropriate levels of support in their communities, as evidence by our recent It’s My Life report.
Thank you to those members who responded to our call to share their experiences of accessing health care (good or bad) in our Health Alert! Campaign, sent with our latest Journal. We were able to include more than 30 case studies in our response to this latest consultation and are still seeking additional reports of concerns you have regarding health care, which you can submit via email to info@downs-syndrome.org.uk or by calling our Helpline and telling your story to one of Information Officers on 0333 12 12 300.
Our full response can be read below.