Tees Valley Healthwatch Network worked in partnership with North East Commissioning Support on behalf of the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (NENC ICB). The aim was to deliver a local review in response to the national requirement to improve the planning process when families can no longer support their family member to stay at home.
The particular focus of this project is to improve support for the family, carers and older people with a learning disability (aged 40+ to reflect the early onset of chronic health conditions such as dementia) by producing effective recommendations. This report focuses on the key societal challenges of:
- meeting the needs of people (and their carers) with learning disabilities aged 40 years and over with increasing life expectancy.
- transition planning for people with learning disabilities as their carers age.
- the health and social care system’s response to ageing carer breakdown / crisis arrangements.
- service planning to ensure sufficiency and adequacy of provision to meet complex needs.
- support and guidance for ageing carers.
- effective navigation of appropriate pathways for the cohort of older people with learning disabilities.
- assessment of risk of social isolation and loneliness for older people with learning disabilities.
identification of inequities in the mental health and physical needs of this cohort.