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.

We are delighted to announce that Professor Ruth Northway will be speaking at our conference in June. The conference has limited places, so best register whilst you can!

Addressing Health Inequalties in Learning Disabilities Week

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 June, the Learning Disability Community of Practice will be holding a conference in Chatham entitled, “‘Addressing Health Inequalities in Learning Disability Week 2014”. The aims of the day are for participants to be able to:

1. benefit from the sharing of collaborative initiatives to address health inequalities amongst local people with learning disabilities;
2. utilise reflective groups in order to further develop their current initiatives;
3. stimulate the Community of Practice and further exploit their membership by networking with other members in a creative approach to problem-solving; and
4. contribute to the expansion and further activities of the Community of Practice.

We are very keen to hear from anyone who would like to present anything they are currently doing that they feel addresses health inequalities amongst people with learning disabilities – whether they are generic healthcare staff, people with learning disabilities, carers or specialist healthcare staff. If you have an idea that you’d like to present, please contact the organisers (ideally copying to all):

daniel.marsden@nhs.net

andy.nazarjuk@canterbury.ac.uk

cathy.bernal@canterbury.ac.uk

Thanks. We’re very much looking forward to hearing from you! Further details of the day, including how to apply, will be posted here soon.