Annual review: Speaking out
Annual review: Speaking out
Helping to change things for people with a learning disability
Some of our main work
Health and mental health
We made sure that people with a
learning disability
A learning disability is to do with the way someone's brain works. It makes it harder for someone to learn, understand or do things.
can get vaccines for the Coronavirus sooner than many other people.
The vaccines help to keep people safe from the Coronavirus.
We helped to make sure that all health and care staff in England must get trained about learning disability and
autism
Autism is a disability. Autistic people find it difficult to understand what other people think and feel. They also find it difficult to tell people what they think and feel. Everyone with autism is different.
.
That will help them to give people better care.
There is some extra health care that people with a learning disability can get.
Like health checks every year.
We are helping many more people with a learning disability to get this care.
That includes some groups of people who found it harder to get the care before.
We are doing more work on mental health.
Mental health is about how you feel.
For example, many people with a learning disability felt sad and lonely during Covid-19.
We helped to make some easy information about mental health and Covid-19.
We will also start a big piece of work next year to get better mental health support.
Better care and support in the community
We are working to change things so that people with a learning disability get the care and support they need.
For example, we are helping to make fairer laws about care and support.
And we are trying to get more money from
the government
The Government are the people who run the country. The Government decide how much tax people should pay and how things like the National Health Service (NHS) should work.
for care and support.
That includes better pay for support workers.
Many people with a learning disability still live in mental health hospitals.
They cannot leave even if they want to.
We are working to make sure that more people with a learning disability can leave mental health hospitals.
They should be able to live in the
community
A community is the people and places in an area.
near family and friends instead.
Working to stop people with a learning disability being hurt
We have been working to stop bullying.
This is where people with a learning disability are hurt or treated badly by other people.
For example:
We made videos of different people with a learning disability and what is important to them.
That is helping to change the way that people think about people with a learning disability.
We are working to keep people safe on the internet and social media, like Facebook and Twitter.
For example, we are helping with a new law about keeping people safe on the internet.
Go back to the main Annual Report easy read page