Nurses give their views on improving acute care, and people start making friends at local clubs.
Kelleher E, Caples E, Wills T, Martin AM. Healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities: an exploration of intellectual disability service providers’ experiences of joint working with acute service providers when people with intellectual disabilities access healthcare in acute services. Journal of Learning Disability. 10 October 2024.
A high proportion of people with learning disabilities, have multiple health needs. The services they access include acute care in hospitals, which includes provision “concerned with promoting health, preventing illnesses and diagnosing and treating illness and disease”.
However, the researchers noted that people with an intellectual disability (the preferred term in Ireland, which this study concerns) could be dissatisfied with acute care. This has been attributed to the gaps in staff knowledge, awareness and understanding.
The study stressed that access to high-quality healthcare is a human right and that research had found better staff training was needed.
In this study, 10 nurses gave their views on how people with intellectual disabilities used care services. The aim was to assess gaps in joint-up working between acute care providers and other intellectual disability services.
Three prominent themes arose from the semi-structured interviews: communicating care; establishing a working relationship; and seeing the bigger picture.
The study highlighted the importance of joint working with an emphasis on the role of intellectual disability liaison nurses. The researchers recommended that every acute service should have someone in this position.
Shared protocols, policies and pathways were also crucial to better partnerships, they said.
Boland G, Potter AM, de Paor E, Guerin S. Social inclusion through making neighbourhood connections: experiences of older adults with intellectual disabilities of local volunteering and leisure, facilitated by local connectors. Journal of Learning Disability. 21 October 2024.
Adults with intellectual disabilities (this research took place in Ireland) can find it difficult to engage socially in their communities. Their social networks are often small, and may be limited to family, paid staff and other people with disabilities.
This study explores the social inclusion of six people who joined mainstream leisure clubs or became local volunteers.
It focuses on inclusion in “the neighbourhood”, defined as “active engagement with people and places that matter… in the immediate locality”.
This study followed the six people as they used local leisure facilities over four months.
Each participant was supported by a member of the leisure club or a “community connector” from a voluntary organisation.
It was intended that each adult would become involved in a club as close to their home as possible, without relying on family or paid staff to build relationships.
Interviews after the four-month period indicated the learning-disabled adults enjoyed meeting local residents and taking part in mainstream leisure activities.
Most attended once a week and succeeded in meeting new people, and found it valuable to take part in an experience near to where they lived.
