People with Learning Disabilities & Families

The Equality Act 2010 says all health and care organisations must make changes to their services so they can be accessible to people with disabilities.

This includes people with a physical disability or a sensory disability, people with a learning disability or autistic people and people with a long term condition such as dementia.

Reasonable adjustments can sometimes be small changes such as:

• Providing information in an easy read format
• Installing a ramp
• Providing a quiet room for people to wait in
• Providing a longer appointment time

Reasonable adjustments can also be quite complicated to arrange and sometimes need lots of planning across health and care teams for people who have complex needs.

Reasonable adjustments are individual and should be tailored to the person.

It’s really important to speak to your health and care professionals and tell them about the reasonable adjustments you may or your loved one may need.

The North East & Cumbria Learning Disability Network have developed a range of resources to support people with a learning disability and autistic people to help communicate what reasonable adjustments they might need to their health or care professionals.  You can find these below they include:

• Health & Care Passport
• What to do when you are coming in to hospital?
• What are Annual Health Checks & Health Action Plans
• Easy read leaflets about your blood pressure, diabetes, cancer etc

More resources will continue to be added to these pages.