NEWS

Bild responds to further Panorama exposure of health & social care inequalities across Britain

The latest Panorama exposure, aired on Monday 10^th October 2022, once again shines concerning light on the health inequalities faced across the country by people with learning disabilities. Reporting on the tragic and avoidable deaths of Chloe, Julie and Julie, alongside Robert’s family’s fight to secure him suitable lifesaving cancer treatment, demonstrates the deeply distressing injustices occurring in healthcare across Britain.

People with learning disabilities are entitled to the same quality of health care and treatment as the rest of the population, and yet they are more than twice as likely to die from avoidable causes.

We are continuously witnessing discrimination and diagnostic overshadowing of those with learning disabilities when accessing healthcare, and an unacceptable struggle to access health professionals suitably trained in supporting people with learning disabilities. This is a clear violation of the rights of the individuals.  The UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) states that reasonable accommodations must be made for people with disabilities. The stories of Chloe, Julie, Julie and Robert highlight the catastrophic impact that failing to make these accommodations and adjustments can have on individuals and their families.

It is essential that staff are adequately trained to enable reasonable adjustments to be made and ensure that dignity, human rights and preferences of the person are central to the healthcare they receive. This must involve the understanding of different forms of communication, including recognition that distressed behaviour is often a person’s way of communicating an urgent or unmet need. It is essential that the voice of the person, and where appropriate, their family, is at the heart of healthcare decisions to prevent any more avoidable deaths in future.

Lindsey Allen, Learning Disability and Autism Manager at Bild said: “Everyone is entitled to the health care and support they need and people with learning disabilities are no exception. Healthcare professionals need to learn and understand the unique needs and preferences of people with learning disabilities and work with them, their families, and their supporters to make sure they have the best treatment possible. We have for too long been hearing stories like those of Chloe, Julie, Julie and Robert, now it is time for real and lasting change so that people with learning disabilities are not disadvantaged in the healthcare system.”

Kate Brackley Learning Disability Advisor said: “This kind of bad treatment in healthcare should not be happening; we deserve the right to live the same as anybody else. No matter what, we are we are part of society, and we need to be treated as equals. We need the Oliver McGowan Training in Learning Disability and Autism to happen, so that staff are trained and aware that we deserve to have a good healthy life.”