Spot constipation in people with learning disabilities, campaign urges
Posted 08 August 2023 - 07:00
Nurses asked to help tackle serious health complications and avoidable deaths linked to the condition in people with a learning disability
A new campaign aims to prevent avoidable deaths by helping nurses and other healthcare professionals spot the early signs of constipation in people with a learning disability.
Research by LeDeR, an NHS-funded service improvement programme for people with a learning disability and autistic people, suggests that constipation was one of the ten most frequently reported long-term health conditions of people in England with a learning disability who died in 2020. More than a third were usually prescribed laxatives.
Additionally, up to 50% of people with a learning disability are affected by constipation compared with 10% of the general population.
With someone who may not use words, learn to see indications of change in behaviour and mood
In a bid to tackle serious health complications and avoidable deaths linked to the condition, NHS England has launched the campaign to help people with learning disabilities, healthcare professionals and carers to spot the signs of the condition.
Learning disability nurse consultant Jim Blair welcomed the campaign. ‘All staff need to have focused training on unpicking what is happening with a patient and tuning into someone’s frequency.
For example, with someone who may not use words but uses body language, we can learn to see indications of change in behaviour and their mood,’ he told Nursing Standard.
‘The campaign is right to target the poor outcomes and early deaths of people with learning disabilities from things like constipation, which are highly avoidable,’ said Mr Blair, who is chair of Learning Disabilities NHS England for Care Treatment Reviews.
Campaign includes posters to support conversations and raise awareness of ways to prevent constipation
‘It is shocking that in the 21st century, people with learning disabilities or anybody really is dying from constipation,’ he said. Mr Blair urged nurses working with learning disability patients to check how frequently they had been to the toilet, see what their stool looked like using the Bristol stool chart and gauge if they were behaving differently.
The NHS England campaign offers a range of resources developed in partnership with learning disabilities charities include Mencap and the Down’s Syndrome Association. It includes an animation and posters for use in different care settings to support conversations about constipation and raise awareness of ways to prevent it.
Mencap campaigns assistant Vijay Patel said: ‘These resources are important because constipation is one of the reasons people with a learning disability die avoidably every year.
‘It is good that people with a learning disability, like me, have been involved in the creation of these resources because information about health needs to be accessible, jargon free and easy to read, so that people can understand it and know what to do.’
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