As part of Learning Disability Week, we communicated some myth-busting videos with Marie Crompton, one of our Community Learning Disability nurses in our Lancaster and Morecambe team on Instagram. Please see below for the full list of myth vs reality.
Here are Marie’s myth-busters:
Myth: A learning disability is the same as a learning difficulty
Reality: Someone will a learning disability will need more support living independently, predominately from birth and their IQ is usually below 70 and that’s how we would distinguish someone with a learning disability. Someone with a learning difficulty doesn’t normally affect their IQ or their general intelligence but just needs help reading, writing and maths.
Myth: We are not proper nurses
Reality: As a nurse is to promote health and wellbeing and save people’s lives. As a learning disability nurse, you need to have skills, knowledge and experience to support a person with a learning disability from birth to the end of life. As a learning disability, you care for the person with a learning disability, and their families to meet their physical, mental, emotional, psychological, educational, spiritual and social needs.
Myth: People with learning disabilities never have the capacity to make decisions regarding their treatment
Reality: As an adult, whether they have a learning disability have a right to make decisions wherever possible. People should always support a person to make their own decisions if they can. A person with a learning disability make lack the capacity to make major decisions, but this does not necessarily mean they don’t have the capacity to make small decisions like they want to do in their day and what they want to eat and drink. So all reasonable adjustments should be made to help this person make informed decisions throughout their life. Every decision requires its own assessment.
Myth: If you have a brain injury, then this is considered a learning disability
Reality: So, in the event of a traumatic brain injury the patient can suffer cognitive impairment which is often most long-standing and debilitating. Many people with sustained brain injuries have resulting specific learning disability, the type of severity of the disability depends on the seriousness of the injury and the part of the brain it affects.
Myth: If you have Autism, you have a learning disability too
Reality: Autism is sometimes referred to as a spectrum (Autism Spectrum Disorder). Autism is not a learning disability, however over half the people with Autism also have a learning disability.
Myth: If you have a health need and a learning disability, your need can only be met by the learning disability team
Reality: In regards to referrals to our team, we are a specialist learning disability team so that means if you’ve got a learning disability with an unmet health need that can’t be met within mainstream services, you would be eligible to meet the criteria.
Myth: Having a learning disability stops you from getting a job
Reality: Absolutely not! A person with a learning disability can be employed and they can be a really valued member of the team. Within LSCft we’ve got peer support workers, and we offer reasonable adjustments to make sure their role meets their capability. Peer support workers have real lived experience about being a person with a learning disability so they really quantify our role within the community learning disability team.
