Celebrating Community Services - supporting people with a learning disability
This week we have been celebrating Community Services Week, today we are focussing on our learning disability division and the great work they do in a community setting.
Our learning disability (LD) services work across Birmingham, in which 23,800 (2.3 per cent of the 1.1 million population) have a learning disability. The service aims to provide high quality care through multidisciplinary working and close collaboration with other agencies.
It is important to us that we offer specialist healthcare and support to people living with learning disabilities to help them live happy, healthy, independent and fulfilling lives.
Our services work closely with other professionals and specialists to ensure that a patient's needs are met and in a way that is person-centred. One of the ways we help to improve the care we provide is by giving our patients a platform to share their experiences via our Learning Disability Service User Groups, where attendees can discuss what went well and what didn't in the care they received.
Yesterday, we held our first-ever Learning Disabilities Service User and Carer Awards evening - celebrating and acknowledging the achievements, accomplishments and contributions of the service users and carers who access BCHC learning disability (LD) services.
Professional Lead Nurse for LD Alison Whalley said:
“This awards evening was an opportunity to recognising and reward the amazing achievements and talents of some of the people, of all ages, who we support every day to live as independently as possible and to enjoy opportunities to fulfil their potential and live rewarding and healthy lives.
“We're very grateful to the support of everyone who helped make it happen, not only within the LD division, but also our friends at Midland Mencap, who hosted the evening; our patient experience and BCHC Charity teams; and, last but by no means least, our compere for the night, the Trust's head of risk management and emergency planning, Simon Bates. We really put the 'team' into 'Team BCHC'!”
The event was made possible thanks to donations and fundraising for BCHC Charity, with support from Midland Mencap and trophies donated by TC Branding, ensuring the evening was a huge success. The event highlighted the importance of how community care can support patients to live well in the community and feel seen, valued and heard.
BCHC Charity supports the Learning Disability services in many ways; take a look at their Learning Disabilities appeal to find out more and donate.