Adults' Services
Learning Disability Service
The Learning Disability Service works across Birmingham to provide healthcare for people with learning disabilities living in the community.
About our service
The learning disability service works across Birmingham, in which 23,800 (2.3 per cent of the 1.1 million population) have a learning disability.
Teams provide healthcare for people with learning disabilities living in the community. The service aims to provide high quality care through multidisciplinary working and close collaboration with other agencies.
Who is it for?
The eligibility criteria are:
- People aged 19 years (or within 6 weeks of their 19th birthday).
- Anyone with a diagnosed learning disability who needs specialist health support that cannot be met through mainstream services even with the use of reasonable adjustments.
- Must be registered with a Birmingham GP.
- People moving into Birmingham area who have a Birmingham residential postcode and an identified Birmingham GP, but are unable to register with GP until they have actually moved into their property (for example, a service user discharged from hospital or a complex case moving into the area and going through the transfer / handover of care process). Confirmation will be required for service users eligible for s117 that the transferring Learning Disability Service have had a conversation with the local Integrated Care Board (ICB).
What services do we provide?
We provide short breaks and day services for people needing continuing health care in a more specialised environment.
Residential care is available for people with end-of-life and complex health needs.
Community health services to people living in their own home, with their family or in residential homes and who have additional complex needs.
We have a breadth of expertise and knowledge within the service and support individuals with a range of needs. Interventions include:
- Community Forensic Service
- Community Nursing
- Community Outreach Team
- Epilepsy Team
- Frailty and Dementia Team
- Health Facilitation
- Intensive Support Unit
- Occupational Therapy
- Psychiatry Services
- Psychology
- Short Breaks and Day Services
- Specialist Dietetics Services
- Specialist Physiotherapy Services
- Speech and Language Therapy (SaLT)
- Touch Therapy Team
More information about the Mental Health Act, and how it may affect service users.
Referrals
A referral to the service can be made through a number of means including a patient’s GP, carer or family member. You can make a referral by calling the Learning Disability’s Single Point of Access on 0121 466 4980 or email it to BCHNT.ldreferrals@nhs.net.
This will require completion of a referral form that needs to be sent through.
Once you have been accepted to the Learning Disability service, if you require support, you can call the Greenfields on 0121 466 3900 and you will be directed to the appropriate professional.
A useful link for professionals: https://www.england.nhs.uk/learning-disabilities/improving-health/stomp/professionals/#stomp-network
Food and drink descriptors for people with dysphagia
The International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative (IDDS) - a project aimed at standardising the terms we use to describe food and drink textures - has introduced a new set of descriptors, covering all drinks and foods.