Looking back on 2024, one highlight definitely worth celebrating is the important milestone of our experts by experience training over 2,000 general practice NHS staff in ‘Autism Awareness’.
The Health Leaders we are helping to develop each have autism and/or a learning disability and a desire to use their experiences of healthcare – good and not so good – to help others access a better service from their GP.
Low trust and confidence
A recent study by the University of Leicester and University College London – analysing data from the 2022 General Practice Patient Survey – found adult patients with learning disabilities have less confidence and trust in their healthcare professional or feel their needs are not met.
We set this in the national context outlined by the annual ‘Learning from Lives and Deaths (LeDeR)’ report which shows the average age of death in 2022 of around 63 years for adult males and females with a learning disability in England, compared to around 86 years for adult females and 83 for adult males without a learning disability in the general population.
A significant difference of between 20 and 23 years.
And almost half (42 per cent) of deaths reported were deemed avoidable. Meaning the effective identification and early treatment of a health condition in a learning disabled or autistic patient is potentially life-saving.
Impact and reach
The training, delivered to over 2,000 general practice staff during ‘protected learning time’ courses in June and November, involved each audience in learning disabled and autistic people’s experiences of accessing primary health care.
With some added fun to help break down barriers to open communication, followed by opportunities to ask questions directly to our Health Team. The training is devised by the team themselves.
Grapevine health worker Emma O’Brien says: “With a better, more knowledgeable workforce in the NHS, we can close the health inequalities gap and make the lives of learning disabled people just as important as those without, give the same access to healthcare and help to educate and inform patients and healthcare workers on living longer, healthier lives.”
This means:
- More NHS staff recognise that learning disabled people have specific needs when visiting their doctor
- More NHS staff understand the importance of reasonable adjustments, actively asking what adjustments someone needs and making them on a regular basis
- More NHS staff who have had the opportunity to talk openly to our Health Leaders about their fears and worries and have those questions answered directly by learning disabled and autistic people
- More NHS staff advocating for the health rights of learning disabled people and working together as a team to change things.
More to do
Thank you to Coventry and Warwickshire Training Hub, Coventry and Rugby GP Alliance and Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust for all of our work together this year fighting the health inequalities faced by learning disabled and autistic people.
We hope this work is able to expand its reach even further during 2025 – shifting power and changing systems with a far-reaching impact across the region.
These images were taken at one of the training sessions by Coventry and Warwickshire Training Hub.
The Health Team is part of our Help and Connect project to strengthen learning disabled and autistic people who do not receive statutory support in Coventry. More on this here.