The national STOMP agenda takes its name from its core objective of stopping excessive use of psychotropic medicines to manage challenging behaviour in people with Learning Disability and/or Autism.
Dr Hassan Mahmood has developed Multicultural STOMP (MC-STOMP) for people from an ethnic minority background, which is the first initiative of its kind in the United Kingdom, to ensure that STOMP is available to everybody.
This webpage is for healthcare professionals, families or carers supporting people with aged 19 or over who have a Learning Disability and conditions such as Autism to access information about STOMP in various languages. This is to increase the awareness of STOMP across all communities living in Birmingham.
STOMP is a national strategy designed to stop the overmedication of people of people with Learning Disability, Autism or both. It was initiated by NHS England in 2015 because of concerns that some people were being overmedicated.
Medications should be given for the right reasons and in the right amounts.
People with a Learning disability, Autism or both are more likely to be given psychotropic medicines, which affect how the brain works and include treatments for psychosis, depression, anxiety, sleep problems and epilepsy. Sometimes they are also given to people because their behaviour is seen as challenging.
Psychotropic medicines can cause problems when people take them for too long, take too high a dose, or take them for the wrong reason. This can cause various side effects such as weight gain, feeling tired or ‘drugged up’ and serious physical health issues.
The STOMP campaign promotes alternative ways to support health, wellbeing and safety through a person-centred approach agreed with the individual, their family, carers and doctor, which is regularly reviewed over time.
