Since May 2021, service users who are on psychotropic medication, have been reviewed at our new physical health clinic where a comprehensive proactive health screening and structured physical health assessments take place. As a result, many examples of unmet physical health needs have been identified and subsequently targeted interventions have been carried out. These include:

• Heart conditions, hypertension and suspected breast cancer.
• Support for service users to overcome fears around having diagnostic tests, including blood samples, ECGs and cervical screening, some of them for the first time in their adult lives.
• Enabling number of reasonable adjustments by providing home visits for service users who cannot attend the clinic, longer as well as multiple appointments with desensitisation work, and providing education around health in an easy read format.
• Shared decision making with service users alongside an easy read action plan which is jointly developed.
• Introduction of personalised care planning for individual service users – checking that action plans to improve health and lifestyle are working in each case.
• Helping service users, families, and carers to feel listened to and involved in ongoing inclusive care planning.

As part of ongoing evaluations to ensure the work of the clinic continues to be a success, the team has been gathering feedback from service users accessing the service as a way to understand what is working well and if any improvements or changes are required. The results have been incredibly positive and a real indication that things are certainly moving in the right direction!

113 service users were asked “Thinking about the service we provide, overall how was your experience of the service?” - 83% stated ‘very good’ with 14% answering ‘good’.

Participants of the survey welcomed the opportunity to provide additional comments and feedback, which we were delighted to receive. These included:

• “Very welcoming and kind people talked to service user in a very pleasant and understanding way.”
• “I had a good check over; glad I did as they found a lump in my breast.”
• “I feel safe here.”
• “Exceptional team looking after him, used his puppet to show him what would happen and went at his own pace.”
• “Great service for learning disabilities.”
• “First time we have ever managed to get bloods done. Showed dignity & respect.”
• “Never have I experienced such understanding compassion of my son. The team are over 100% and I so appreciate the time and effort that the staff give to the young person.”
• “To see such a fantastic team get my young person to have a full set of health checks, I could not have wished for a fabulous team.”
• “Very kind team for nervous patient.”
• “Very friendly and patient. Excellent communications over all made the whole experience better, less stressful and informative as a carer it’s great to bring the client for a positive experience.”
• “Excellent service and the first time the service user had fully cooperated with a health check.”

If you would like more information about the physical health clinic, please contact us via the 'Contact Us' button on the site or via your local community learning disability team.