News

Learning Disabilities and Palliative Care: Building Bridges, Supporting Care

The Scottish Government and Help the Hospices have jointly funded this project which aims support staff in the provision of best quality care for people with learning disabilities who have palliative care needs.

The project covers Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and brings together staff specialising in Learning Disabilities and in Palliative Care, using a practice development approach.

The project is being jointly led by Liz Smith, Practice Development Facilitator at The Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice, and Allison O’Donnell, Learning Disability Nurse from the Renfrew Learning Disability Team. Funded for one year, the project started in August 2012, though the project team hope that there will be future funding following the project's initial support and success.

The aims of the project are

1. To develop partnership working, building relationships at both strategic and clinical levels between local palliative care and learning disability teams.

2. To develop a care pathway to deliver appropriate and high quality palliative care for people with learning disabilities, including guidance for referral to specialist palliative care.

3. To ensure all staff have easy access to locally adapted resources, including assessment and support tools, and ensure staff are equipped with the knowledge and skills to use these resources.

4. To link with the clinical workforce teams, building upon their knowledge, skills and confidence to ensure they provide high quality palliative care to meet the needs of people with learning disabilities.

5. To ensure the Prince and Princess of Wales hospice services are accessible and appropriate for people with learning disabilities.

Project Progress to date

• Partnership working has been established and is working well between joint project leads.
• A project steering group has been established and is meeting every two months
• There has been promotion of the project to 12 Learning Disability and six hospice teams within Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• Key staff from both specialities have been identified to take part in joint education and training, case discussion and reflective practice every two months. (The first of these was held in November 2012.)
• 78 delegates attended an education event open to all learning disability and palliative care staff within Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The day was a great success a further event is planned for May 2013.

This project links in with the NHS GG&C Learning Disability Strategy. Project outputs will be shared nationally.

For any further information please contact Project Leads: Liz Smith or Allison O'Donnell or telephone 0141 429 5599.