The Community’s Steering Group is pleased to announce this year’s annual conference will take place on 4th December at Canterbury Christ Church University’s Medway campus.
We plan to share a flyer and call for abstracts/contributions in September, in the meantime please block the day out in your diary.
Canterbury Christ Church will host two more Learning Disability and Autism knowledge mobilisation events in September, continuing the university’s commitment to develop it’s offer to this specialised workforce in Kent and Medway and beyond.
These in person events are free and are aimed particularly at those that are working with people with learning disabilities and autistic people. For more details and booking please see below.
LDA Workforce events Sept 24
STOMP (Stopping Over Medication of People with a learning disability, autism or both) and STAMP (Supporting Treatment and Appropriate Medication in Paediatrics) are national projects, launched by NHS England and involving many different organisations, aiming to stop the overuse of psychotropic medicines.
It is estimated that on an average day in England between 30,000 and 35,000 people with a learning disability, autism or both are taking prescribed psychotropic medication without appropriate clinical justification.
This is a medication which results in alterations to perception, mood or consciousness. Long-term use of these medicines puts people at unnecessary risk of a wide range of side effects including weight gain, organ failure and even premature death.
We have launched a questionnaire to hear from colleagues across the health and care sector, including family carers, about your experiences of using STOMP and STAMP within your job roles and how awareness and understanding of STOMP and STAMP could be improved.
Understanding the views of health and care professionals with experience in supporting people is essential to identifying opportunities and building solutions to prevent the overuse and inappropriate use of psychotropic medications.
The questionnaire is open now until Friday 16 December 2022.
This project is a collaboration between VODG, the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi), Learning Disability England (LDE) and Skills for Care and is funded by Health Education England.
Find out more on our project page here: www.vodg.org.uk/resource/stomp-and-stamp-the-essential-role-of-the-health-and-care-workforce-in-reducing-the-reliance-on-psychotropic-medication.html If you have questions about the survey or would prefer to talk through your views with a researcher, please email research.policy@vodg.org.uk
In August Marianne Day, Shanice Thomas and Siobhan Brennan from University of Manchester presented their practice and research knowledge on the issues of hearing and audiology in people with learning disabilities and autistic people at a Community online event – please see the film below:-
The team are now looking for people with learning disabilities and autistic people in Kent Surrey and Sussex to participate in their research study to expose the barriers to access to good hearing for these communities, and outline some recommendations for adjustments to practice to improve this situation.
If you know of anyone that might like to contribute please contact Marianne via email Marianne.day@manchester.ac.uk.