We are always keen to know what the uptake is for the Tier 1 of the Paul Ridd Learning Disability Awareness Training within the NHS and we receive notification of these figures quarterly. Recently the body that collates this information has changed to Performance and Assurance within the NHS Executive. We had a great meeting with Dave Semmens and Lara Homan who explained that they now collate figures from all health boards on three areas: the uptake of the PRF mandatory training, the uptake of Annual Health Checks, and the implementation of the Health Equalities Framework. We are really looking forward to working with them. A link to the HEF and how it works in Wales is below:
https://performanceandimprovement.nhs.wales/functions/quality-safety-and-improvement/improvement/our-work/learning-disability/health-equality-framework-hef/#:~:text=Framework+%20(HEF+)-,Health%20Equality%20Framework+%20(HEF+),projects%20to%20further%20its%20effectiveness.
This year’s Learning Disability Week was 16th to 22nd June, and the theme was “Do you see me?” It was about making sure that people with a learning disability are seen, heard, included and valued in all aspects of life. We spent a few hours with Amy, one of the acute learning disability nurses from Swansea Bay, in Neath Port Talbot talking to staff, (and anyone else who would listen!) about the importance of asking for the patient’s Health Profile. We also chatted about the mandatory training and in a few cases, we were concerned to hear that people who had completed the training didn’t equate the Health Profile with what they had learnt about. Maybe it’s time for our logo to be on the Health Profile? We heard about great events in other hospitals and some people raised funds for us through cake sales and raffles, which we are very grateful for thank you!
On the Friday we spoke at Swansea University to over 150 first year students from all genres of nursing, to share Paul’s Story with them. It seemed a fitting way to end such an important week. Then the following week we spoke to students in St David’s Park, Carmarthen. A good month for sharing learning disability awareness! We have received some wonderful comments and feedback from the students and one theme seemed to show some great understanding about the importance of reasonable adjustments, which was very positive considering we had just added in extra information about them to our presentation! Some examples from the students:
“Read up and research more about reasonable adjustments.”
“Adopt and adapt reasonable adjustments.”
“Read the health profile first. Advocate for the patient. Contact the liaison nurse. Make reasonable adjustments.”
We were delighted at the end of the month to meet again with Professor Sue Tranka the Chief Nursing Officer for Wales at her offices in Cardiff, alongside Sion Jones from Mencap Cymru. It was a very productive and open meeting, and we are so grateful for her time and commitment to our work. We discussed the 6 high impact interventions that she wants to be a focus which are the care bundle, the annual health check, health profile, the acute liaison team, community team and a safe discharge from hospital.
On July 11th it would have been Paul’s 70th birthday, and we are commemorating it with a week of tea and cake for Paul through which we are hoping to raise some much-needed funds. If you can help by hosting an event in work or at home, please do get in touch and we can send you some ideas and a poster!
With grateful thanks from all at the Paul Ridd Foundation for your continued support.
