How to prevent ‘avoidable deaths’ of people with learning disabilities
Do you care for or work with someone with a learning disability? Find out how you can help to prevent the risk of avoidable death.
Across the UK, 1.5 million people have a learning disability, and these individuals typically have poorer health outcomes. In 2022, people with learning disabilities were more likely to die from an ‘avoidable death’ at a rate of 42%, compared to 22% for those without them.
The severity and real-world impacts of a learning disability are unique to every individual, so it can be a challenge for care professionals to provide the best, individualised care. According to researchers at King’s College London (KCL), the top three causes of these avoidable deaths were linked to cardiovascular conditions (26%), respiratory diseases (24%), and cancers (16%).
The KCL report also found that for one out of every four deaths of a person with a learning disability, there had been expressed concerns about the delivery and quality of care. Problems with organisational processes were the most commonly reported complaint.
To suggest actionable improvements within the healthcare sector, the experts in digital management systems at Radar Healthcare, explain how providers can use tech tools to better support people with disabilities.
What is a learning disability?
A learning disability can be defined as a reduced intellectual ability, which causes individuals to struggle with everyday activities including household tasks, socialising, or money management. Someone with a learning disability typically takes longer to understand complex information and develop new skills.
Learning disabilities are caused by something that impacts typical brain development, these factors may include:
- A genetic condition, for example Fragile X syndrome
- Abnormal chromosomes e.g. Down’s syndrome or Turner syndrome
- Exposure to environmental toxins, infections, and illness during pregnancy
- Extremely premature birth
- Complications during birth, resulting in a lack of oxygen to the baby’s brain
- Illnesses or diseases, for example meningitis or measles; or injury or trauma to the brain in early childhood
However, sometimes the cause of a learning disability is unclear or cannot be determined.
Learning disabilities are often confused with learning difficulties, which only affect a specific form of learning or information processing. Some of the most common learning difficulties include Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, and dyscalculia. In contrast to learning disabilities, learning difficulties typically do not have a notable impact on your overall intellect.
Helpful health tech to prevent avoidable deaths
Let’s look at some of the helpful health tech available that can be used to prevent avoidable deaths.
Health tech for patients to use
Digital self-management tools can be used to empower people with learning disabilities with their daily activities and allow care professionals to remotely monitor those they support. A couple of options, which have been used by the NHS, include Hear Me Now and Brain in Hand.
This kind of digital tool has the potential to help with a variety of activities and challenges:
- Reminding individuals to eat healthy, drink water, and exercise
- Creating supporting materials to make social interactions less intimidating
- Managing anxiety, making decisions, or solving problems
- Alerting support workers when they need extra or urgent help
- Record-keeping to log their experiences, feelings, and concerns
This technology could drastically improve care practices, and allow for a more nuanced relationship between a patient and their care team. When an individual uses this kind of tool, they’re cultivating and collating a wealth of information about their health and care needs.
Care professionals can then access that information to get detailed insights into the lives of the people they support. This data can enhance the way care professionals deliver health checks, fuelling more in-depth conversations, personalised treatment, and more timely support or intervention when required.
Health tech for care organisations to use
Ineffective organisational processes were the most commonly reported complaint when delivering quality care to individuals with learning disabilities. According to the KCL report, the following were the primary contributing factors to these concerns:
- Delays in care or treatment
- Coordination of care
- Gaps in service provision
- Recommended diagnostic and treatment guidelines not being met
To address these problem areas, healthcare organisations may consider implementing various organisational software designed to facilitate crucial activities like incident reporting, document management, and workforce compliance.
Incident reporting software:
- Care professionals swiftly log incidents and analyse events, as well as streamline incident workflows.
- Staff can automate follow-up tasks, assign roles for completing tasks, and calculate due dates to improve rates of timely and thorough workload completion.
- This tool could reduce treatment delays, improve care coordination, and ensure treatment guidelines are adequately followed.
Document management software:
- Care teams can effortlessly manage and share crucial digital documents and policies.
- With easy access to files, staff can easily update and access the most recent and relevant patient health data.
- This tool can empower care professionals to deliver the most informed, targeted care possible, and cultivate more coordinated care across roles or departments.
Workforce compliance software:
- Leadership can easily track staff certifications, appraisals, supervisions, and real-time compliance with policy or training requirements.
- By maintaining a fully compliant and competent workforce, care providers can even out any gaps in service quality and feel confident that the whole team is informed and equipped to follow diagnostic and treatment guidelines.
