Matthew Broome writes his debut Mental Elf blog on a three-year clinical and functional outcome comparison between first episode manic psychosis and first-episode schizophrenia.
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The results of the feasibility study into a national clinical audit of learning disabilities was published last month. Here we consider the findings and the response from NHS England
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Background We have posted extensively about the current state of knowledge around the health care needs of people with learning disabilities and the nature of the responses by UK health providers. The Mencap Getting it Right campaign launched after the publication of Death by Indifference’, aims to support local campaigners, health professionals, GP surgeries, hospitals [read the full story…]
As you know here at Elf towers, we are committed to bringing you the evidence, so that you can make informed decisions about practice. However I hope you’ll forgive a slight deviation from this aim this Friday, as we bring to your attention the publication of yet another report that highlights poor NHS care. On [read the full story…]
Avoiding unnecessary hospital admissions for ‘ambulatory care sensitive conditions’ (ACSCs), reduces costs and should provide good outcomes for patients. ACSCs are defined as those where ‘effective management’ at the primary care level should avoid admission to hospital. Many of the conditions identified as ACSCs, for example convulsions and epilepsy are more common among people with [read the full story…]
Life expectancy of people with Down syndrome has been increasing over the last ten years, with consequent increases in the incidence of morbidity as they age. The authors of this study carried out by Israeli researchers point out that there is not much literature exploring this morbidity or looking at hospitalisation of adults with Down [read the full story…]
The organisation of mental health services for people with learning disabilities, particularly issues relating to inpatient care remains an important area for research. This review of the literature set out to identify recent findings. The review found that people with learning disabilities appeared to be admitted with more severe problems and also received more interventions [read the full story…]
Researchers in this Canadian study looked at the factors associated with the use of psychiatric emergency services by people with learning disabilities who were living with their family. They conducted an audit of hospital chart audits for a sample of 20 such individuals with learning disabilities who had visited the emergency department (ED) at the [read the full story…]
