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Making adjustments for people with learning disabilities

Posted By cp4

"Making adjustments for people with learning disabilities"

About: Victoria Hospital / Trauma & orthopaedics

(as other),

Attending an outpatient appointment at Victoria Hospital Kirkcaldy, in both orthopaedic clinic and x ray department, I saw an older man with Down Syndrome and a lady also who has Down Syndrome.

Both waited just as long as I did to be seen and feel reasonable adjustments should have been made to make their appointment waiting times shorter. No visible symbols or easy read materials anywhere.

I just feel disappointed.

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Responses

Response from Louise Ewing, Clinical Service Manager, Older Adult Services, Health & Social Care Partnership Fife Wide 6 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Louise Ewing
Clinical Service Manager, Older Adult Services,
Health & Social Care Partnership Fife Wide

Submitted on 11/08/2017 at 16:37
Published on Care Opinion at 16:38

picture of Louise Ewing

Dear cp4

Thank you for your feedback. I shared your post with Wendi, our Learning Disability Liaison Nurse who explained that, where we know of a patient with a specific need, we can make every effort to address that; however we need to be careful to treat each person as an individual as we have experience of individuals with a learning disability not wishing to be treated differently.

With regards your reference to visual symbols and easy read materials, we acknowledge your point and know we need to improve this. Wendi tells me there is a lot of work going on within Learning Disabilities to produce information for patients/carers, so watch this space...we are happy to share when it is ready!

I also know from my work with NHS Fife's Equality Lead that we are currently in the process of developing an accessible communication strategy, which will take into consideration things like easy read and alternative formats. We do have some good examples of this already in Fife but there is much more to be done.

We appreciate you taking the time to feedback. Please feel free to google, Learning Disabilities NHS Fife where information is available about the range of work being undertaken to support Learning Disabilities in Fife.

Regards

Louise

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