Wolverhampton People's Parliament PMLD White Paper

the lives of people with 22 Improving Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities People with profound and multiple learning disabilities and their families should expect to be provided with good information, timely equipment, and the support needed to be given the best opportunity to protect body shape.

People with badly distorted body shape will have less choice and require more complicated equipment. They will also need much more time and energy of their supporters.

This will be taken up with managing the difficulties of their care.

Dr Pauline Heslop who led the confidential Inquiry into premature deaths of people with learning disabilities advised the People’s Parliament of the following: The Confidential Inquiry into premature deaths of people with learning disabilities noted the importance of good postural support. It found that some people were at high risk of health problems because their body shape had changed over the years. In particular, problems with breathing, digestion and pain were found. These problems made it hard for people to stay healthy and fight infections, and led to a risk of early death. Having these problems also meant that people were likely to have a poor quality of life.

In some cases, the Confidential Inquiry found that no measures had been taken to try and prevent changes to a person’s body shape. One of the recommendations of the Confidential Inquiry was for services to be better about thinking in advance about a person’s needs to prevent problems happening in the future. It noted the importance of good postural support as an example of this.