Category: Health and Wellbeing

Development of a Kent, Surrey & Sussex Learning Disability Community of Practice

/ George Matuska / 1 Comment

You may be aware that the Kent and Medway Learning Disability Community of Practice (K&MLDCoP) is three years old this year and during the last six months has been reviewing its goals and aspirations.

Click here to review an overview of major events over the last three years

It’s model up to this point has been to enable and encourage local membership to contribute to activities based around the three main purposes, those of:-

  1. Eradicate health inequalities for people with learning disabilities
  1. To promote person centred care and support
  1. To encourage equality and access.

This has led to three well attended and evaluated conferences, engagement via social media and IT, and a growing number of clinical and academic projects.

As a result of a review over the last few months, the K&MLDCoP has been considering ways of building on its firm foundations, which has led to a successful bid for resources from Health Education England in Kent, Surrey and Sussex (HEE KSS) to allow them to open up this resource to a wider community.

With this in mind the K&MLDCoP will become the Kent, Surrey and Sussex learning disability Community of Practice over the next six months which will culminate in a 2016 launch Conference.

The CoP are looking for volunteers from across Kent, Surrey and Sussex to get involved in the Conference planning and the continued development of the CoP.

Outline for the conference:

  • A free one day event open to anyone with an interest or working in Learning Disability
  • The day will be made up of a number of short workshops/ presentation provided by community members to showcase the work they are currently doing in field of Learning disability across KSS. This will be videoed and shared via social media (click here to see the 2015 conference details: https://goo.gl/uF0pDp )
  • During the conference the CoP will also host the first meeting of ID Workforce stakeholder group, the information shared at this meeting will guide the future ID workforce development plan for HEE KSS, and is crucial to our work as we move it forward.

We would like as many of you as possible to either attend this event, or put forward someone else in your organisation who can, in order that we can continue to help you make a positive difference. If you would like to know more or would like to be involved in this exciting new start for the CoP, please contact them at kandmldcop@gmail.com

Please feel free to forward this information to any other groups or individuals in your area you think would like to be part of this exciting development.

We look forward to hearing from you soon

Best regards

George Matuska on behalf of

Kent and Medway Learning Disability Community of Practice,
email: kandmldcop@gmail.com
Website: https://kentlivewell.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @kandmldcop

Aspire Free School Petition

/ dmarsden49 / Leave a comment

Aspire is a Kent based team who are campaigning to create a free school to transform the life opportunities for children and young people with Autistic Spectrum Conditions. There mission is to give children and young people the support they need to learn, thrive and succeed in life as independent adults in modern Britain.

To support the Aspire project you can:-

a) click on the picture below to find out more about the projectaspire

 

b) Check their website by clicking here and

c) Sign the petition to the Secretary of State for Education Nicky Morgan, by clicking here.

Reasonable Adjustments Conference Report & Presentations – 17th June 2015

/ George Matuska / 3 Comments

This year’s Conference was based on how we can all implement reasonable adjustments for people with learning disabilities in our work. The conference participants and the Community of Practice team found each of the presentations insightful, interesting and thought provoking. The audience participation and inclusion generated great debate and key questions for reflective thought.  Main focus with regards to barriers to ensuring services and people are well adjusted to meet the needs of these individuals.  There were lots of opportunities for networking which allowed all to address some key questions and barriers to ensure services and people are well adjusted to meet the needs of these individuals.   Delegates shared personal insights and experiences, while remembering that people with learning disabilities are no less human than anyone else.

All the presentations and and resources from the day are available on the conference page. Please click here

Professor Chris Hatton from The University of Lancaster was guest speaker and he opened the event with the provocative question – “are you well adjusted? “

The event was a great success in showcasing some of the excellent work and initiatives happening across Kent for people with learning disabilities particularly around access to health care and therapies.

Feedback received from the attendees from the day was very positive.   We would like to thank you all for your responses; which are invaluable to making next years Conference even more of a success.

Individuals who could not make the conference were able get involved via twitter using the #LDWeek15 and #ldcop15 hashtags. A full transcript of this conversation including photos are available by clicking here.

The day was held during Learning Disability Awareness Week “inclusion” and all participants wanted to mark this by having their support shared via the below photo being shared on Twitter.

#ldweek15 picture

For further details on the whole day click on the conference page by clicking here.

Tracey Rose

Community Learning Disability Nurse

Twitter @traceypockett 

 

Community of Practice presents Doctors Workshops on People with Learning Disabilities

/ dmarsden49 / Leave a comment

The Community of Practice are pleased to share this flyer for workshops for Doctors and other healthcare professionals enabling reasonable adjustments to be made for people with learning disabilities in healthcare settings.

This is a collaborative venture with East Kent Hospitals Trust and other partners including Kent Community Healthcare Trust, East Kent Mencap and Canterbury Christchurch University.

Drs LD Workshops flyer

The first workshop on 27th March is already full, however 4 more workshops and a final conference are planned.

Please email catherine.kidd@nhs.net to get more details.