Supporting the physical health needs of people with learning disabilities

Introduction Although there are increased mortality and morbidity rates for people with learning disabilities, life expectancy has increased. This means that people with learning disabilities will also be prone to diseases associated with ageing, which changes how we approach end of life care. It also means that learning disability staff, who may not have had experience in end of life care, and palliative care staff, who may not have had experience in providing care to people with learning disabilities, are now finding that they are meeting new challenges in their practice. From the other c hapters we have seen that people with learning disabilities suffer higher rates of physical comorbidity with a rise in illness associated with poor lifestyles. We also know that there are many incidents of premature deaths that could reasonably have been expected to be prevented, for example, deaths through epilepsy or aspiration of fluids and/or foods on the lungs. For many people with learning disabilities, good end of life care has not been available, denying them their right to a dignified and peaceful death. This chapter considers some of the issues and best practice for supporting people at the end of life. The term ‘end of life’ is used to mean different things, from the last year of life to the last hours or days. The latter is the meaning used in this chapter.