This guidance aims to support GPs and primary health care teams to identify sight loss and visual impairment in their patients with learning disabilities to signpost them to appropriate specialist services.

There are approximately 1 million adults in the United Kingdom with a learning disability:

• People with learning disabilities are 10 times more likely to have serious sight problems than other people. People with severe or profound learning disabilities are most likely to have sight problems.
• People with learning disabilities may not know they have a sight problem and may not be able to tell people. Many people may think the person with a learning disability they know can see perfectly well.
• 6 in 10 people with learning disabilities need glasses and often need support to get used to them.
• People with learning disabilities need to have a sight test every two years, sometimes more often. Regular sight tests and wearing glasses helps people stay healthy and get the most from life.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL DOCUMENT HERE - http://www.lookupinfo.org/includes/documents/2012/v/vision_and_pwld_guidance_for_gps.pdf

About 1 in 200 children in the UK are affected by epilepsy – yet the standard of care they receive remains variable, according to the results of the UK’s first national audit of epilepsy care for children and young people.

Led by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and funded by the Health Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) and Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS), the Epilepsy12 Audit report, launched today, examines the provision of healthcare for children with suspected epileptic seizures against 12 standard measures.

The audit was largely undertaken by local paediatricians and nurses keen to find ways to continue improving the services they provide – and 98% of children’s NHS Service took part. The audit found significant variation in the quality of care for children with epilepsy and their families, with some encouraging figures, including:

• 79% of children with epilepsy saw a paediatrician with specialist training in childhood epilepsy
• 87% had their seizure type appropriately classified - important in determining the best form of treatment
• 95% were given carbamazepine appropriately – a medicine for controlling epilepsy

However, the audit also found:

• Only 46% of children saw an epilepsy specialist nurse – against a recommendation that all children have access to one
• 40% of children did not see a paediatric neurologist where required
• 65% of children had an appropriate first assessment; 35% did not have a complete first assessment

TO READ MORE AND DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT FOLLOW THIS LINK - http://www.rcpch.ac.uk/news/variation-care-children-epilepsy-revealed-first-uk-wide-audit

The Hospital to Home* Resource Pack contains essential information for all the professional sectors that have a role in hospital discharge for older people in England. It contains information, suggestions for action, case studies and checklists for considering older patients’ housing situations in hospital discharge and transfer of care and for improving integration of housing and support into the process for discharging older people.

CLICK THIS LINK - http://housinglin.org.uk/hospital2home_pack/

The report of the UK Modernising Learning Disabilities Nursing Review

Foreword

My professional commitment to learning disabilities nursing is long standing. It emerged from a personal insight early in my career into the vital role that learning disabilities nurses play in the lives of people with learning disabilities, their families and carers, the very complex and high-level competences they possess, and the advocacy, passion and dedication they show. I am therefore proud, and delighted, to be introducing this report of the UK Modernising Learning Disabilities Nursing Review on behalf of my fellow government chief nursing officers.

The role and profile of learning disabilities nursing has changed significantly over the last three decades. The wholesale shift from institutionalised care to a social model of provision based on independence, inclusion and empowerment has improved significantly the lives of people with learning disabilities, but has served to reduce demand for learning disabilities nursing as a specialism. As a result, the learning disabilities nursing workforce today is smaller and more widely distributed across the health and social care sector than ever before; and while some occupy specialist learning disabilities nursing roles, many others have more generic care or managerial roles.

This has resulted in a lack of focus and direction for learning disabilities nursing, fragmentation of the learning disabilities nursing community and, potentially, a loss of core nursing and specialist learning disabilities nursing skills to the system at a time when demand (which is already growing) is likely to increase. More and more children born with learning disabilities are now surviving into adolescence, adulthood and into older age, with the complex range of medical and health problems that brings: they require specialist learning disabilities nursing support across the lifespan.

In initiating the review, the UK chief nursing officers sought to bring this issue to the forefront for people with learning disabilities, their families and carers, policy-makers, commissioners, services, professional leaders and the learning disabilities workforce so that together we can prepare for the challenges and opportunities ahead. At the same time, we wanted to remind everyone of the very proud tradition that underpins learning disabilities nursing and of the importance of their contribution and commitment in a changing world.

The four countries are now invited to consider the report’s recommendations and progress then as appropriate within their own contexts.

Chief Nursing Officer, Scottish Government

 TO DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT CLICK HERE