A short while ago, the Learning Disabilities Elf made a small contribution to the Justice for LB campaign by trying to draw attention once again to the evidence base. Wednesday (day 91) saw the publication of a key report from the Care Quality Commission and Challenging Behaviour Foundation, which tells the stories of three young [read the full story…]
Josephine Neale summarises a recent review of qualitative evidence that finds carers’ views are mixed and lie on a spectrum of acceptance of their relative as actively dying with dementia.
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The evidence-base supporting the use of exercise for depression is ever growing. Susie Johnson reports on a recent systematic review that adds to the discussion, but it’s not without its own limitations.
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Difficulties with swallowing can lead to significant risk, from aspiration, dehydration, recurrent chest infections and of course choking risk. Dysphagia, the difficulty in preparation of food in the mouth for swallowing, can have a number of causes, physiological, environmental and behavioural. The consequences of not identifying and then dealing with the issue can clearly have [read the full story…]
The health inequalities of people with learning disabilities are well documented in the literature, with increased risks for many physical and sensory health issues as well as mental health issues and responses from health services have often been poor, as documented in the Michael Report. In recent years, the healthcare pathways approach has been introduced [read the full story…]
Mental health in the workplace is an area that we’ve blogged about a few times before. This blog features a recent review by Tan et al on workplace interventions for depression. Mental disorders are the leading cause of sickness absence (Harvey, 2009 and Henderson, 2011), and depression in particular is predicted to be the leading [read the full story…]
Despite fails in caries level in recent decades caries is still a significant problem for many children The aim of this study was to compare the effect of infiltration and fissure sealing with fluoride varnish applications. Children aged 5-8 with at least three primary molars with initial lesions on three occlusal surfaces in each child [read the full story…]
There is increasing interest in patient reported outcomes (PROMs) from health care interventions. Oral health–related quality of life (OHRQoL) has been defined as, ‘the absence of negative impacts of oral conditions on social life and a positive sense of dentofacial self-confidence’ and a number of validated tools are available. The aim of this review was [read the full story…]
This recent report, commissioned by the European Commission and compiled by RAND Europe, aims to summarise economic evaluation evidence on the impact of integrated care. The authors restricted their evidence search to systematic reviews and meta analyses, which is understandable as this is described as a rapid review but the authors acknowledge this has limitations, [read the full story…]
During her presidency of the BMA, Professor Sheila Hollins has hosted a number of seminars on issues faced by vulnerable groups in the NHS, one of which looked at the issues facing people with learning disabilities. This report by the BMA Board of Science aims to move towards ‘parity of esteem’, a term which is [read the full story…]
