Learning disabilities and health equality Flashcards
Define learning difficulty?
Disorder that causes child/adolescent to have problems processing a specific area of skill/life
Define learning disability?
Medical term that describes when school-age children have significantly reduced ability to understand new/complex information and to learn new skills, and reduced ability to cope independently with everyday life
Comparing learning disabilities and difficulties, do they affect general intelligence and IQ?
Learning disabilities affect general intelligence and IQ, clinical term is ‘impaired intelligence’
Learning difficulties don’t affect general intelligence or IQ
Is a learning disability a lifelong condition or can it be cured?
In all cases, learning disability is a lifelong condition that cannot be cured
When does a learning disability develop in an individual, and why?
Learning disability develops before/during/soon after birth
Because brain is still developing and can be affected
How is learning disability severity classed?
By intelligence quotient (IQ)
What are the 4 classes that define learning disability severity in terms of IQ?
Mild: 50-60
Moderate: 35-40
Severe: 20-34
Profound: less than 20
Describe the vocabulary of a person with a learning disability, and what disadvantage does this cause?
Limited vocabulary to being non-verbal
Produces communication and social difficulties
Give 2 examples of what should be avoided in your communication style to support people with learning disabilities?
Abbreviations
Abstract sayings
Give 3 examples of what should be used in your communication style to support people with learning disabilities?
Sign language
Picture cards
Short sentences
Give 3 examples of how you can support a person with learning disabilities that cause processing delays?
Constantly check that you are being understood
Avoid making assumptions
Pre-plan activities
Why is useful to pre-plan activities for people with learning disabilities?
Can support them as they have processing delays, so this gives person more time to process something
Give 2 examples of how you can support a person with learning disabilities, when they have problems with attention and organisation?
consider any distractions in the environment
be person-centred by constantly engaging with them and their significant others
Give 2 examples of how you can support a person with learning disabilities, when they have problems with cognitive development and memory?
use accessible info that they can refer back to
use documentation such as hospital passports, communication profiles
Does a person with a learning disability have an increased risk of other mental and physical conditions?
Yes
What kind of adjustments are made to support a person with a learning disability, and what is their function?
Reasonable adjustments
Prevent your disability putting you at a disadvantage compared with others who are not disabled
Define reasonable adjustment?
Changes that organisations, people providing services, or people providing public functions have to make for you
Which act of parliament requires reasonable adjustments to be made, and what do these allow equal access to?
Equality act
states to provide equal access to health and social care including the duty to provide reasonable adjustments to your services
What is the LeDeR and its function?
Service improvement NHS programme to make services better for people with a learning disability and autistic people
What demographic does the LeDeR collect info from, and what is this info used for?
Provides info about deaths of people aged 4 and over that were notified to the programme
to improve care and prevent premature mortality, as it showed that ~50% deaths were avoidable
Compare the average age of death of a person with and without learning disabilities, and why does this health disparity occur?
Average age of death is 62 yrs, due to poorer mental and physical health, so they die earlier and from different causes to rest of population (82 yrs)
According to the LeDeR, what were the 5 leading causes of death in people over 4 with learning disabilities?
Covid-19
Circulatory system disease
Respiratory system disease
Cancer
Nervous system disease
According to the LeDeR, what were the 5 most frequent conditions that people over 4 with learning disabilities had who died?
Epilepsy
Cardiovascular conditons
Mental health conditions
Sensory impairment
Dysphagia
