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We have just published on our website a DH-commissioned systematic
review of the effectiveness of health checks for people with learning
disabilities. 

The introduction of health checks for people with learning disabilities
nearly always leads to:

*	the detection of unmet, unrecognised and potentially treatable
health conditions (including serious and life threatening conditions
such as cancer, heart disease and dementia);
*	targeted actions to address these health needs.

Given the specific difficulties faced by people with learning
disabilities, we believe that targeted health checks are an effective
and important 'reasonable adjustment' to primary health care services in
the UK. It is the legal duty (under the Disability Discrimination Acts
1995, 2005 and the Equality Act 2010) of primary care services to make
such adjustments.

More information on the impact of health checks is available in our 
report
<http://www.improvinghealthandlives.org.uk/uploads/doc/vid_7646_IHAL2010
-04HealthChecksSystemticReview.pdf>  (
http://www.improvinghealthandlives.org.uk/uploads/doc/vid_7646_IHAL2010-
04HealthChecksSystemticReview.pdf) 

Eric

 

Eric Emerson

Co-Director

 

www.ihal.org.uk 

 

Professor of Disability & Health Research 
Centre for Disability Research 
Lancaster University 
Lancaster LA1 4YT 
UK 

http://www.lancs.ac.uk/cedr/

 

Visiting Professor

Faculty of Health Sciences

Cumberland Campus C42
University of Sydney

PO Box 170 
Lidcombe NSW 1825 
Australia

http://www.afdsrc.org/

 

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