Mencap's death Indifference report.

INTRODUCTION TO MENCAP'S DEATH INDIFFERENCE REPORT.


Mencap wrote a report called 'TREAT ME RIGHT.' IN 2004.

It said that people with learning disabilities have worse health than other people.

Mencap think it's because people with learning disabilities don't get the treatment and Health care that we need.

Sometimes this can mean people with learning disabilities can die at a younger than other people. Mencap thinks it's very bad and it shouldn't happen.


'TREAT ME RIGHT.' Report said important changes need to be made to better Health care and treatment. Not enough has changed.

Since Mencap wrote ' TREAT ME RIGHT' Mencap heard that six people with learning disabilities have died because they didn't receive the right Health care and treatment.

Not only do I agree with Mencap and 'TREAT ME RIGHT' I also believe from my own experience of Health care that they were neglected.

As shocking as it is, it doesn't surprising to me when I have had learning disabilities myself for just over 40yrs since the day I was born.

It tells me that not a lot has changed for people with learning disabilities.'Come on let's get better Health care for the future of learning disability'.

EMMA. Emma has a great sense of humour.

Emma loved pulling funny faces for a laugh.

Emma had wonderful smiles that lit up the room up.

Emma died of cancer in 2004 at the age of 26.

Emma had a severe learning disability that made it hard to let people know how she felt.

Doctors thought Emma didn't agree to have the treatment for her cancer, so they didn't do anything to save her.

Mencap wants to know.

If doctors would have treated Emma, would she still be alive?

Why didn't Emma receive the right treatment and Health care?

May be Emma tried to tell the doctors but she may have found it hard to make her understood, which has happened to me and many other people learning disabilities at many times.

Why wasn't Emma given anything for the pain?

Please read the Death Indifference report on WWW.mencap.org.uk or tap Mencap's Death Indifference report in the search engine.

MARTIN. Martin loved smiling, going out and listening to music.

Martin loved to get behind the wheel of a car.

Martin died in hospital, he hadn't had any food for 26 days.

He died on the 21st December 2005.

Martin had a severe learning disability without any speech.

Martin had a Stroke and Pheumia, which was an infection in his lungs.

Martin was put on a drip, living on water and sugar.

MARK. Mark was 30 yrs of age when he died.
8 and a half wks before hand he was admitted to hospital with a broken leg (femur).

He was clearly distressed and in pain. , but he had to wait 3 days for the pain team to see him. Mark died on 29th August 2003.

I believe that the Pain team must have been to blame leaving Mark in pain for 3 days. How many people in the world died of a broken leg not very many if any.

TED, Ted was 61 yrs of age when he died, he was dischanrged 3 after being admitted to hospital despite his condition having been assessed as 'concerning.'

He collapsed and died on 27th May 2004.

He had a severe learning disability and virtually no speech.

How can we explain Ted's unexplained death?

No one can explain how.

A hospice consultant recommended that 20 yr old Tom's pain was investigated by gastroenterologist over a year before he died.

No action was taken until it was far too late.

Tom's expression of pain wasn't listened to, he died 25th May 2004. He had profound and multiple learning disabilities.

WARREN, Warren was 30 when he died following perforation of the appendix. His Mother and Father repeatedly asked whether Warren had appendicitis or a blocked bowl when they saw the doctor.

They told them that he had a virus. Warren died on the 25th September 2004.

He had a severe learning disability and very little speech but couldn't make himself understood to his family.


Read more of this on Mencap's Death Indifference report website or search engine.


Mencap want to know.

Why didn't Martin have any food for 26 days?

Why didn't the hospital give Martin better Health care?

About this report.

Mencap wrote this report to educate and train people on learning disability and Health.

Mencap believe that people get treated unfairly in Health care services.

There's still a lot of discrimination against all races, which is wrong. Why should people stop living their lives to how they want whether they have a race or not?

People's needs aren't understood whether they have disabilities or not. People's need to be met whether they have disabilities or not. These things can happen for a long time before people know it's wrong.

People need to understand learning disability.


Mencap believes that!

People who make the decisions about Health care don't think people with learning disabilities' lives are important as theirs.

In 2006, the government said that people with learning disabilities don't always get treated equally to other people. Not many changes have been made since.

Health care professionals do not understand learning disability.

Staff aren't given enough educating or training to understand learning disability.If staff have wrong ideas about learning disability, no one tells them it's wrong.

The Disability Rights commission has found Health care professionals sometimes confuse the signs that show someone is ill when they have learning disabilities. This is diagnostic over shadowing.


Health care professions don't listen to families/ carers and they don't listen to people with learning disabilities.

People with learning disabilities don't always get our say or choices to our Health situations.

Our chooses should be supported.

It's seems that what Health staff and family/carers have control over people with learning disabilities live when they talk about our health, we need to learn how to speak for ourselves.

Even people who can't speak have another form of communication that people need to learn to understand, go along and learn to communicate in the way.

(How would you like not being understood?) Each each and everyone of us has a voice, thoughts and feelings just like you do.
Families/ carers notice if the people they care for are acting differently and can see if the person is upset or and in pain.

Only because we may find hard to make ourselves clear enough for you to understand us doesn't mean we don't feel anything.

If it's really hard to understand at least find out whether we are happy or sad, even if you can't do anything about it.

May be most us may be able to tell you the reasons why we feel like we feel. At least bare our reasons in mind if you can't help us.

In all cases Mencap looked at this report, to find out that most families/carers are ignored by Health professions knowing very well about the worries they have for the people they care for.

Families/carers should always be listened to so should people with learning disabilities main when we are in pain or whatever the situation could be.

Service providers need to learn how to balance the say of families/carer and the people with disabilities whatever the situation is.

Try to encourage the person who is supporting the person with learning disabilities to be more supportive than over protective.

Everyone who gives treatment should understand laws and consent. If they understood the laws better, people with a learning disability would get what we need and want.

Health professionals don't always see the lives of people with disabilities are just as important as everyone's.
Mencap thinks that Health staff don't think people with disabilities' lives are important to save and worth living.

The lives of people with learning disabilities should be important as much as everyone's. Health care professionals shouldn't really decide that a person's life isn't worth living just because they have learning disabilities.

What Mencap wants to happen.

Mencap wants the case reports to be looked at in an independent inquiry.

There are 6 stories about people with learning disabilities in the main report. These are called cases.
Mencap want all the 6 cases in the independent inquiry.

This means people who have not been involved in the cases will look at the cases altogether. They will try to find out the reasons behind the 6 deaths, what needs to change and what lessons need to be learned to stopped these things from happening again.

At the moment it takes too long for a complaint to be heard.
Families/carer are upset over the people who loved, looked and cared for who died.
Mencap's question why do families/carers have to wait for a complaint to be heard?

Why do people have to wait so long for a response?( Services need to find out what happened, why and how. Family/carers need clear information to their rights.

Mencap wants the Health care commission to have more money to do this job better.

We want it done easy, quick and accessible for people with learning disabilities to make complaints and to get the answers to the reason for these bad things happening.

Nothing can bring back the 6 people who died.

Their families want to know why the people who they loved died so early, when there might
have been better Heath care, they needed to be taken care of and better treatment for them.

Mencap has written this report because we want to stop people with a learning disability from dieing so early in life.

We need to train and educate Health care staff to give them the right Health care, look after them and give them the right treatment when being in hospital or anywhere they are but also for them to have equal lives with the right support.



Mencap's website is also linked to mine.

You could send me an email if you want to on sarajgorman@googlemail.com