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The role of support staff in helping people to stay healthy

Duncan Mitchell, Sue Caton and Mel Chapman

Some people with learning disabilities need support from staff to help them live healthy lives.

Staff are often expected to know a lot about health and illness so that they can do their jobs. Some staff have had training to support people with health and illness but others have not.

In our paper we will talk about the way in which staff support people with learning disabilities to live healthy lives and how they support them when they are ill.

We will base what we say on a number of different pieces of work. Some of the work is recent, for example we have done some interviews with staff and we have also sent out a questionnaire. Some of the work is about the past, for example we have looked at some records from the big institutions and we have talked to some of the people who worked in them.

Our findings are about things that help keep people stay healthy and things that  people need when they are ill.

Some of the things that we have found out are:

  • Some staff have more training than others but all support staff are expected to do similar things.
  • There are some really important things such as cooking that staff are expected to do but are not trained to do.
  • Some staff are not very confident in dealing with health professionals.
  • Staff report that even while they are competent, other support staff are not.
  • Some people with learning disabilities are offered more to eat than other people, often they are offered unhealthy food. This makes it difficult for people to make healthy choices.
  • Some staff do not live healthy lives themselves.

Contact us

About the Group

If you woud like to get in touch with the Social History of Learning Disability (SHLD) Research Group, please contact:

Liz Tilley 
Chair of the Social History of Learning Disability (SHLD) Research Group
School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care
Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA

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