CASE STUDIES - Sexual Health Week (August 2008)

Mark Austin
Community Paediatric Learning Disability Nurse
Royal Liverpool Children’s NHS Trust.

My job is very varied. I provide advice and support to parents and carers of children and young people with severe learning disabilities and challenging behaviour. I work in partnership with families who are experiencing difficulties with for example sleeping, aggressive behaviour, self injury, personal relationships and sexuality issues. The support I give includes assessment, care planning, skills teaching, information about services and training opportunities.

It is incredibly satisfying when something I’ve aimed for is achieved by a child or a family. It’s like scoring a goal.

In respect of sexual health, using health promotion and education to influence behaviour are key elements of my role. I passionately believe we need to be more open and teach children more effectively about sexual health issues.

And what is the best thing about my job? Flexible working and good annual leave allocation. Only joking - it’s definitely the children and families I work with.

Chris Jones
Principal Clinical Psychologist
Ridgeway Partnership (Oxfordshire Learning Disability NHS Trust)

I first joined the NHS in 1976. At this time, most people with learning disabilities lived in long-stay hospitals. I am now part of a multidisciplinary Adult Learning Disability Team and work alongside a host of other professionals, such as occupational therapists, nurses, doctors, care managers and speech and language therapists.

Psychology is about making the most of the human condition and people with learning disabilities generally have the same hopes and ambitions in life as anyone else. In particular, psychologists find out about thoughts, feelings and behaviours and have ideas about what needs to change to make things better.

As I specialise in understanding sexual behaviour, this includes helping people who have been abused to make sense of what has happened. People with learning disabilities are vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation, but working positively to promote knowledge about sexuality, sexual health and rights actually makes people safer. Risk can never be eliminated, but that is not a reason to deny a basic human right.

This is why I really enjoy working with as a consultant to a specialist dating and friendship agency called 'Mates and Dates'. This is "positive psychology" in action. It actually promotes intimate personal relationships between people with learning disabilities.

I am proud to work for the NHS. It matters to me that I can deliver a service to some of the most socially disadvantaged people according to need, not ability to pay.

Teresa Day
Health Promotion Specialist Sexual Health & Learning Disability
Isle of Wight Primary Care Trust - Public Health Department

I’ve wanted to be a nurse as long as I can remember. Supporting people and giving them correct information at the right time and in a way they can understand has always been very important to me.

I developed the SHIELD programme (Sexual Health Innovative Education for Learning Disabilities) as a response to the sexual health needs of people with learning disabilities. The best thing about my job is that I know my efforts can make a difference. Not just to people who have learning disabilities but their carers and the services that support them. I hope that SHIELD will continue and become a flexible national mandatory programme of good practice when I am pushing up daisies.

It was great to recognised for my work earlier this year when I was named Learning Disability Nurse of the Year at the Nursing Standard awards. However, my best day as a practitioner was when I told a young couple in a long term relationship that they could make love in the privacy of their own home. They both had learning disabilities and lived together at the same care home but had only slept together on holiday. The look on their faces was a picture.

People with learning disabilities need more than just being included in the general health picture. At my PCT, we are taking positive action by funding special services and programmes to meet their diverse needs. I have been in NHS for 30 years and have seen good and bad times. I am lucky to work within a forward thinking public heath team that supports innovation and lateral thinking.