Symptoms Needs and Support Strategies in Health and Social Care

Introduction

Learning disabilities refer to the condition, where the children are suffering from learning and the effects of disabilities are such as lack of understanding of the children, miscommunication and lack of proper knowledge according to their age. Having learning disabilities among the children is increasing across the world, where there are huge numbers of children, suffering from learning disabilities with challenging behaviour. It is the responsibility of the health and social care professionals to take care of the people, suffering from the challenging behaviour for learning disabilities. The disorders related to learning disabilities affect the organisation, acquisition, retention, using and understating the knowledge and verbal and non-verbal information (Terras, McGregor and Jarrett, 2017). The challenging disorders hereby affect the learning activities among the people. The main aim of the study is to identify the symptoms and signs of the people suffering from learning disabilities as well as acknowledge their actual needs in the health and social care context. Without having proper knowledge about the actual needs and preferences of the people with learning disabilities, it is difficult for the care givers to develop proper planning to support the individuals with challenging behaviour and help them to overcome their disabilities. The study also helps to analyse the strategies and communication practice to support the people with learning disabilities and help them to lead a normal life by enhancing their learning abilities. The paper is also effective to discuss the role of the learning disability nursing professionals, who are playing crucial role to support the children or the adults with the challenging behaviour due to learning disabilities. The percentage of disabled people is increasing across the globe, due to increasing numbers of mental health issues among the individuals. The people are suffering from challenging behaviour due to learning disabilities and it further deteriorate the quality of life and thus it is essential or the health and social care professionals to develop proper care plan to support the individuals and help them to improve their learning abilities and maximise their wellbeing in long run.

Issues and health care needs of the individuals suffering from learning disabilities

There are several causes of learning disabilities, which are an inherited condition effecting brain development, Chromosome abnormalities and complications during birth and these are the major cause for which the children are suffering from disabilities in learning. There are other causes which are passing down to generation to generation, due to certain medical condition and abnormalities including neurological illness or chronic childhood ear infections that also affect the neurological development or the structure of the brain as well as creating learning disabilities among the children. It has serious impacts on the quality of life of the people where they face difficulties to learn and gather information. The mental condition is weak and there is lack of brain development for which the people are suffering through learning disabilities. The people with challenging behaviour face issues in learning, spelling, writing, understanding the context, lack of keeping the numbers in mathematics and reasoning (Russell, Bryant and House, 2017). The people are also suffering from keeping track of the class schedule, completing the coursework, remembering the homework activities, spelling and vocabulary, recalling the information studied in the class session, remembering the basic mathematic, phone numbers, address and people’s name. Due to lack of brain development, the people forget the information as well as they is suffering through learning the information and remembering it in their mind. There are different type of learning disabilities high are dyslexia known as learning disability, ADHD stands for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, processing deficit, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia. There are millions of people suffering from ADHD which is one of the common types of learning disabilities hampering child growth, where the children are suffering through hyper activities and attention deficit.

Statistics related to learning disabilities

As per the statistics, 40% of adults with learning disabilities have mental health problem where they need proper support and care from the social care workers to improve their mental condition. Apart from that, 85% of disabled adult feel loneliness in the society and the mortality rate due to learning disabilities is also increasing due to poor mental condition of the individuals as well as they are suffering from challenging behaviour. The people with challenging behaviour are not lazy or dumb, but they have average or above average intelligence. The common issues related to the learning disabilities are, where the people are suffering through depression and emotional problem. They also feel low self esteem in the society and this may cause the students to withdraw social interactions and participation in the classroom session. There are high effects of learning disabilities which are social isolation, anxiety disorders, lack of self esteem and values, for which the people are also facing the issue of emotional problems and mood swing (Gallagher, Peacock and Arber, 2018). The same students also may turn to drugs or alcohol misuse which is mainly from the low self esteem in the society. Sometimes, they feel ignored by the teaching professionals and it has also negative impacts on their mental condition. It is necessary for the social care workers to identify the actual needs and preferences of the people with challenging behaviour, so that it would be effective for the care professionals to develop proper care plan and support them with efficient medical treatment and quality care. There are different needs of the people with learning disabilities which are communication, one to one interaction, positive attitude, respect and integrity, and continuous support from the care givers. Additionally, there are the requirement of medication, enabling independence and inclusion, expressing distress, reasonable adjustment, maximising capacity and consent as well as health care service, so that the physical and mental health condition of the people with learning disabilities can be improved well.

Strategic planning to maximise wellbeing of the individuals suffering from challenging behaviour due to learning disabilities

There are different strategies to tackle the people with learning disabilities and help them to overcome the challenging behaviour, where it is mandatory to advocate the children or the adult, offer the new solutions, keeping their focused, clarifying the goals and helping them to read and write. There is inclusive learning activities, which is also effective for the individuals who are suffering through challenging behaviour where in the inclusive, learning, the teacher recognises the entitlement of the children, respect diversity and enable them to participate in the learning process. Considering a huge verity of learning, removing the barriers and anticipating the process are also other strategies to encourage the people and help them continuously to take active part in the learning activities. Continuous support in this regard is necessary for the people and the teacher aim to guide them with different learning activities including inclusive learning, question answer session, participative practice, empowering the students to explore more information, self understanding of the content, let the explaining the content and encouraging them to learn and write. These are the major activities through which it is possible to provide support to the children and the adults with challenging behaviour. For maximising the wellbeing of the individuals suffering from challenging behaviour due to learning disabilities, it the care professionals also try to arrange counselling session, acknowledge their actual needs and difficulties to learn. The counsellor tries to empower them in the care plan and support them to explore information and understand it out of their knowledge and understanding. Self learning practice is encouraged where the care professionals aim at improving participation of the individuals with challenging behaviour and helps them to understand the context successfully (Felton, Cook and Anthony, 2018). On the other hand, Individualised Educational Program (IEP) is also effective strategy to support the children and the adult to learn more and it is basically an individualised program, where the teaching professionals try to support the individual having challenging behaviour to learn. One on one tutorial class with the support of the specialist is one of the effective ways to support the individuals with learning disabilities.

Additionally, there are some specialists who are trying to collaborate to support the children and adults with learning disabilities such as physicians, speech and language therapist, physiotherapist, paediatricians, educational and clinical psychologist and social workers. They are playing an important role to develop proper educational program and care plan for the individuals to support them and give them the chance to learn and write properly. Psychological counselling session as well as the support from the educational and clinical staff is advantageous for the people suffering from challenging behaviour. Apart from that, the teaching professionals try to develop inclusive learning activities and class room sessions where they encourage people participation in the class session. The people are encouraged to participate and explore more information successfully (Naseem et al., 2016). Individual informative content are also utilised to support the people with challenging behaviour as the image and interactive content have great impact on the mindset of the individuals, where the people can understand the content through graphical representation as well as remember it well in future. These are the major practices through which the people with learning disabilities are empowered in the classroom session and they are encouraged to take active part independently to gather information, understand it, as well as improve their learning and writing activities as well as mitigate their challenging behaviour.

Communication strategies to support the people with learning disabilities

In order to support the people with challenging behaviour, it is necessary for the care professionals, nurses and social workers to communicate with the people as communication is the major way to interact with them and understand their perspective and issues related to learning disabilities. In this regard, the care professionals try to develop friendly atmosphere so that the people can feel comfortable and share their experience and issues to learn and gather information. The care workers try to develop verbal communication which is the ways way to transfer one’s feeling to another and in this context, open communication and one to one interaction is effective for the care givers to interact with the people with challenging behaviour (Owen, 2018). The people also become interested to develop one to one communicate and feel comfortable to share their learning issues. Using accessible language is mandatory, where the care givers try to use the local language the people is habituated with. Giving the chance to the people to speak out about their challenging behaviour and respecting them are important and it further helps the people to share their feelings and disabilities to learn and write.

The care professionals also utilise different communication tools apart from verbal communication. They try to utilise the digital pictures to communicate with the people with challenging behaviour as digital pictures are effective for the people to gather information and understand the perspective of the pictures and it further develops their mind set and brain successfully. Gesture and non-verbal communication are also developed where pointing, nodding, focused eye, physical movement help the children to understand the information. The nurses and the care professionals try to use pictures and also audio visual activities which have great impacts on the mindset of the people with challenging behaviour due to learning disabilities. The people start thinking about the pictures as well as it further attracts them to understand and improve their mind set to visualise the picture again (Walker et al., 2016). Talk to them continuously about the context as well as giving explanation is also other way to treat the people and communicate with them. Listen actively as well as utilising the digital technology for more interactive content and image are effective for the care professionals to communicate with the and improve their mental condition to learn and write.

Solution of accessing the heath care service

It is the responsibility of the health and social care professionals to provide equal opportunity to the social communities so that the people with challenging behaviour can access the health care services equally in the society to overcome their difficulties to live with effective quality of life. Hence, it is also necessary for the care professionals to provide the scope to the people having challenging behaviour to access the heath care service to manage their learning disabilities. For providing the chance of accessing the health care services, it is necessary for the social workers and the care givers to team up with Independent Transportation Network, ITN, which is one of the effective solutions to provide equal opportunity under the implementation of the Equality Act 2010, where nobody is feeling discriminated in the society (Weise, Fisher and Trollor, 2017). In addition to this, it is necessary for the care givers to promote the services and share the information with the social communities, so that the people suffering from challenging behaviour can find suitable place to get proper treatment and care. In this regard, social health care campaign is effective to provide access of the care services so that the people acknowledge the scope of getting suitable environment and treatment to overcome their challenging behaviour due to learning disabilities.

Apart from that, opening mobile clinics in the localities across the international places is one of the effective strategies to give access to health and social care services. In this regard, the people suffering from challenging behaviour cannot feel hesitated to come across the clinics and they are also able to find the suitable places for getting the treatment (Mafuba et al., 2018). Partnership with other clinics in the locality and health care promotional activities through social media, distributing the leaflets are also effective to let the people know about the treatment and care available in the care home for supporting the adults as well as the children in the society who are suffering from challenging behaviour due to learning disabilities. In the recent era of globalisation, their cared professionals are influenced highly with digitalisation and there is a great impact of technical advancement on the health and social care and in this regard, the care professionals try to arrange the social campaign and focus on social media advisement to share their information and encourage the people to access the services to support the people with challenging behaviour (Clark et al., 2017). Teaming up with social care workers and the charity homes are also another effective solution for providing equal access to the community where the people can get effective treatment, medication and support as well as friendly environment to overcome the issue related to learning disabilities.

Role of the learning disabilities nurse in promoting holistic health and wellbeing

The learning disabilities nurses are playing crucial role in supporting the individuals with learning disabilities and enhance their holistic health and wellbeing it is the major responsibility of the learning disabilities nurses to ensure the needs and preferences of the adults as well as the children with challenging behaviour and help them to maintain their physical and mental health. The nurses are efficient to support the people with proper care and treatment so that the daily activities of the people can be improved. Proper communication and interaction with the patient is also the role of the nurses, where they try to behave emotionally and friendly to develop strong bonding and ensure safety and security of the people who are suffering from the challenging behaviour. Ensuring proper safety and feeling valued at the workplace further help the people with learning disability to share their problems and health issues with the nurses so that the nurses can empower the people in developing suitable care plan (Powell and Jefferies, 2019). On the other hand, the nurses also provide help to the family member of the people with challenging behaviour and share proper information to the family member about the ways to control the children and adult suffering from learning disabilities. Advising appropriate care, developing care plan, time scheduling for better care plan management and execution of the treatment, assessing and planning care requirements are also the responsibility of the care professionals in the learning disability field, where the career are playing an important role to support the people with challenging behaviour.

Apart from that, the nurses are also responsible for providing support, giving continuous quality care, helping them to improve basic piratical skills such as preparing food, getting dressed, remembering past memory and activities etc. These are also roles for the nurses to support the people with challenging behaviour and help them to overcome the situation and mental disorders. The major role of the learning disabilities nurses is to support he individuals with the difficulties for enabling the client to have full and independent live, which is effective for the people to stay independently and improve their self esteem (Kaehne et al., 2018). Creating values of the people, and learning activities for supporting them with proper learning environment are also the responsibility of the learning disabilities nurses, where the people with challenging behaviour can get proper cooperation, and support to learn and improve their mental health condition. The delivery of educational training and practice development is also another major role of the learning disabilities nurses where they try to provide learning activities, small homework activities, help them to remember, understand verbal and non-verbal information successfully and mitigate the challenging behaviour. These are the major roles and responsibilities of the learning disabilities nurses through which the nurses try to support the people with challenging behaviour due to learning disabilities and help them to overcome the disabilities for enhancing their wellbeing and independent living condition.

Conclusion

There is increasing numbers of people suffering from the challenging behaviour due to learning disabilities and in the society it is the responsibly of the health care professionals such as GPs, paediatricians, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, educational and clinical psychologists and social care to take active part to support the people for maximising their wellbeing in long run. The educational program, inclusive learning activities as well as one to one learning seasons are effective in this regard to support the people with challenging behaviour and help them to overcome the disabilities to learn. The care professionals and the teachers try to enhance communication through verbal and non-verbal activities so that the people can interact with them and improve their understanding and knowledge through audio visual activities which further helps to mitigate the challenging behaviour. In the recent era of globalisation, digitalisation and technological advancement are beneficial for the care professionals to develop proper learning and educational program through utilising internet, audio visual system for helping the people with challenging behaviour and providing equal opportunities to the individuals so that they can access the quality care and educational program successfully.

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