ARC East of England collaborated with Thurrock Coalition to produce an infographic capturing the opinions of Thurrock residents with a learning disability and/or autism on 4 points raised from the LeDer report.
The LeDeR report aims to learn from the lives and deaths of people with a learning disability and/or people with autism. This infographic gives a summary of the findings and provides insight on how we can improve the health and social care services people access in Thurrock to enable longer, happier and healthier lives.
The findings came from a consultation set up by Tammy Henry at Thurrock Coalition who spoke to local residents in a series of focus groups. The Thurrock Coalition provides advice and information on the rights and entitlements of disabled and older people. They consult and engage with individuals to help influence Social Care policy.
"We discussed 4 main concerns that arose from the LeDer report. This is vitally important to ensure that as a community we learn from the lives and deaths of people with a learning disability to improve the services and support they receive to eradicate preventable deaths."
Tammy Henry, Thurrock Coalition
"When people with learning disability do not show typical symptoms and use behaviour to communicate distress, pain or feeling unwell their symptoms are often interpreted as “acting out” or a “mental health” issue and other symptoms are not properly considered. This could lead to a misdiagnosis. If we ensure the communication needs of people are taken in to account and supported this could be prevented." - Tammy Henry, Thurrock Coalition
The infographic was produced collaboratively with the ARC Communications lead, Thurrock Coalition and Dr. Jessica Rees, Ageing and Multi-Morbidity theme.