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On July 11th we marked what would have been Paul’s 69th birthday, by asking people to think of Paul and his beloved family when having their daily cuppa. Paul loved cake and so many of the photos we have show him celebrating with family and friends over tea and cake! We also thought about the huge changes that have taken place within the NHS in Wales due to the endless campaigning that Paul’s family and the Paul Ridd Foundation have continued since his avoidable death, for people with a learning disability. We are often contacted by families who are struggling with an issue and don’t know where to turn. It is our absolute pleasure to be able to point them in the right direction or put them in touch with someone who can help them. One of our campaigns at the beginning was for an increase in the number of learning disability liaison nurses in secondary care. When Paul died there were 2, and now there are over 20 across Wales. Our connections with the learning disability liaison nurses in both primary and secondary care are so vital and we are so grateful for the amazing work that they do and the huge difference that they make.
We had a great meeting mid-month with a lady from Learning & Development in a local council regarding the mandatory Paul RIdd Learning Disability Awareness training. She was looking for training for staff who specialise in working with people with a learning disability. We are delighted that people in all areas are looking to do awareness training, which will make such a difference. We are hoping that soon the training will be available for anyone working with people with a learning disability, so we shall keep you posted.
This month we have started the “revamp” of our Learning Disability Champion training with the help of Paul Harris. We are very excited to see this develop as this is such an important and vital training and will provide people with the awareness and tools needed to really make a difference to the hospital experience of people with a learning disability.
At the end of the month, we saw the Welsh Government report of the “Overview of mortality amongst people with a learning disability in Wales 2012-2022.” This is a really important piece of work that sadly shows that too often people are dying avoidable deaths and dying far too young. We hope that the Government will commit to the recommendations within this review including that this should be an annual report. It can be found by following this link: https://www.gov.wales/mortality-amongst-people-learning-disability
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