New year is a time for new resolutions, and being more healthy is often at the top of the list! For many people with learning disabilities, autism and sight loss, that means getting the right support from health care services. In this blog our Listen Up! Team member Sue discusses her experiences of getting healthy.

Sue recently joined SeeAbility’s Listen Up! Team because she wanted to to share her experiences with decision-makers. She recently met her local MP in the House of Lords – a meeting that has inspired her to get more involved.

Sue and the Listen Up! team met to discuss the changes to the healthcare system they would like to see. There is currently an opportunity for people to have their say on the future of the NHS, with a new 10 year plan in the works, so Sue has been making her voice heard.

“People with learning disabilities need the right help and support to be healthy. There are some things I can’t do on my own anymore so I need that extra help. But I still like to be involved with my care and decisions, so it’s important that this happens. It helps me to live my life how I want to.”

“As a team we discussed how the NHS is all about people. When it works well, it is brilliant. But it needs to be more joined up with social care. People shouldn’t have to call an ambulance because they haven’t had the social care support they need. The NHS plan won’t work unless there is a social care plan too.”

Some of the ideas that the Listen Up! Team has given to the government include:

• Having a complementary 10 year plan for social care that puts equal value on the social care and NHS workforces. This is needed urgently, and people should not have to wait to 2028 until this happens. 
   
• An NHS which is accessible and inclusive to all. Reasonable adjustments and communications should be offered in the right format for people with learning disabilities, autism and sight loss.
   
• A genuine choice to speak to and access services in person, and not just online.
   
• A focus on people with learning disabilities in the health system, as they still suffer some of the worst avoidable health issues. Even something like next year’s Covid vaccination programme is set to exclude people with learning disabilities, once of the highest risk groups for complications from Covid.

Better eye care for people with learning disabilities

SeeAbility’s eye care champions have also shared their views for the NHS 10 year plan and call for a new national plan for eye care.

“People with learning disabilities are much more likely to have a sight problem than other people. In adults it is 10 times more likely. We need reforms as everyone deserves an equal right to sight.” 

Their ideas include:

• Ensuring the new NHS special schools eye care service is a success, which means proper funding for it and with quality of care built in.
   
• An ‘easy eye care’ pathway in every area funded through enhancements to the national NHS scheme. This would enable optical practices to offer much more expanded and extended support to people with high support needs.
   
• Changing eligibility for NHS sight tests to include people with learning disabilities in the ‘high risk’ group category. This eligibility should be annual, linking up to the GP annual learning disability health check.

It is not too late to have your say on the NHS 10 year plan which is still taking comments until February. Have a look at the Change NHS website to have your say. You can also find easy read and other accessible versions of the questions.