In 2011 East Kent Hospitals worked with people with learning disabilities and hospital staff to create and publish My Healthcare Passport.

Since then, along with using the Passport to improve care for people with learning disabilities, we have been working with NHS Ethics to get permission to do an action research project to find out how it is used, and how we might be able to improve how it is used.

We are looking for a group of stakeholders – people with learning disabilities, Hospital health care professionals, Families, Care workers and Community professionals to become Co-researchers in this project.

We are holding three Information events at the beginning of June about this project and what it will entail.

If you’d like to book a place for one of the information events please download the below form, fill out and send back.

Thanks,

Daniel Marsden

Momentum is building toward Learning Disability Week 2014 and the Addressing Health Inequalities event!

On top of confirming that Prof Ruth Northway (twitter : @northwayruth) the keynote speaker, sharing her experiences of working with people with learning disabilities as researchers, we’ve begun to receive contributions from potential presenters both locally and further a field!

If you’d like to present some of your good practice, download the form from here fill in the form and send back to kandmldcop@gmail.com by 15th May 2014.

To book a places for this inclusive event please go to our eventbrite webpage.

We’ll look forward to hearing from you, and seeing you in June.

The ‘Kent and Medway Community of Practice hold the date’ post earlier this week had several people email us about presenting their developments in practice! So we’ve decided to get organised and ask for more!

If you click on the picture below, you can down load a form to share your piece of work.

Your piece of work has to be linked to the purpose of the Community of Practice, to be:-

1. be person centred;
2. provide the best quality care and support; and
3. improve equality and access.

The closing date for submissions is 15th May and you’ll be informed within two weeks as to whether you’ve been successful! Don’t forget! This conference is intended to be inclusive, so be creative with your submission!

Lastly you can now book your places by clicking here or on the Eventbrite logo on the right hand side of this page!

On 18th February the Learning Disability Community of Practice was invited to the Kent Learning Disability Partnership Board‘s Health subgroup – The Good Health Group.

We explained the purpose of the Community of Practice using the below presentation.

We worked with the group to identify:-

1) What we do really well at in Kent?

2) What we are worried about?

3) What ways could we work together to improve peoples health in Kent?

This is what people said.

There was a lot of talk about the numbers of people going for Annual Health Checks and what this entails.

One person said they would write an easy to read piece on Health checks and what to expect. We’ll publish the results on here soon!

What do you think ought to be done to improve the health of people with learning disabilities? We’d like to know!

England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals is inviting members of the public to tell his inspection panel what they think of the services provided by East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust.

Their views and experiences will help inspectors decide what to look at when they inspect the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, Canterbury, the William Harvey Hospital, Ashford, and the Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother Hospital, Margate, in March.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC1BwbGVKlw]

To ensure the views of patients and the local community are properly heard, the inspectors will be holding three listening events:-

• Monday, 3 March 6:30pm – Canterbury Cathedral Lodge, The Precincts, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 2EH

• Wednesday, 5 March 6:30pm – The Winter Gardens, Fort Crescent, Margate, CT9 1HX

• Wednesday 5 March 6:30pm – Ashford International Hotel, Simone Weil Avenue, Ashford, TN24 8UX

If you would like to know more, or to book your place at an event, please click here.