Consultation: Managing mental health problems in people with learning disabilities
NICE – the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence – is consulting on draft recommendations aimed at helping people with learning disabilities who are experiencing mental health problems.
Approximately 1.5 million people in the UK have a learning disability, 286,000 of these are children. It is estimated that 40% of adults and 36% of children with learning disabilities in the UK experience mental health problems. Many of these people will encounter a delay in diagnosis due to their symptoms being wrongly attributed to their learning disabilities or because they are not able to describe how they are feeling.
This draft guideline, which is open for consultation, covers the full range of learning disabilities. It suggests that people should begin their treatment on the lowest effective dose of medication to take into account the potential side effects, and to reflect the difficulties that they may have in reporting these.
It also recommends specialised, communication-focused parent training programmes be provided. These would consist of 8 to 12 group sessions aiming to provide support and raise awareness in those families that have children with learning disabilities.
Professor Mark Baker, Director for the Centre of Clinical Practice at NICE, said: “Absolutely anyone can experience mental health problems at any stage of their life. People with learning disabilities cannot always communicate their distress, and their symptoms can be masked or mistakenly overlooked. This means we need to do more to support them, their families and their care workers.”
The draft recommendations in this guideline address the organisation and delivery of support across a wide-range of settings including health, social care, educational, forensic and the criminal justice system.
The consultation closes on Wednesday 20 April 2016 with the final guideline expected in the summer.
Professor Baker added: “I would strongly urge anyone with an interest or experience in this area to really look at the recommendations this draft guideline is suggesting. By working together we can make sure healthcare workers, social care professionals, educational leaders and supporting family members are well-equipped with evidence-based advice. We can help them support the people they care about.”
