Learning Disability nursing

In the NHS today, we don't want somebody to be reliant on healthcare for their entire life, but we recognise that people going through big transitions or having sudden changes in their health do need support. So it's about being available when the person in the community needs us to help them with what changes they want to make. Our centre at Twinwoods is a multidisciplinary team. We work as art therapists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and learning disability nurses and each person forms kind of a jigsaw for somebody's healthcare. I definitely had a passion for art when I was at school. I suffered very badly with anxiety and I went for some therapy and I realised that you could put art making and therapy together and help somebody to make change in their life. Art therapy brings together art making and psychological theories and that means helping somebody to make changes in their life, to think about improving their psychological and emotional well-being so that they can live the best life they can. An occupational therapist provides practical support to somebody with a learning disability to overcome barriers in their everyday life or their occupations. Speech and language therapist is somebody who supports an adult with a learning disability with life-improving care for their communication. Sometimes that's using new technologies and sometimes it's using simple tools that help the person communicate in a really succinct but clear way. Learning disability nurse, they work really with the whole person so they're absolutely supporting somebody with their physical health but also they're helping with the family or the carers around that person and really making sure the person is living the most independent and the best life they can. People with learning disabilities are much more likely to have problems with their vision or eye control and this may affect how they communicate. Orthoptists specialise in detecting and treating these problems, helping the person to maximise their vision for learning at school or communicating with others. We know today that there's a huge amount of stigma towards people with mental health problems but also towards people with learning disabilities. The more that we can do to encourage all kinds of people across the community to come together it really is a positive part of supporting people's long-term mental health and when you're in a room with somebody it's such a privilege because through the safety of therapy you're supporting them to make changes in their life.