Facts about learning disability

Most people with a learning disability are treated as ‘different'. They do not have the same control over their own lives as the rest of our society and face challenges and prejudice every day.

Less than 1 in 5 people with a learning disability work (compared with 1 in 2 disabled people generally), but we know that at least 65% of people with a learning disability want to work. Of those people with a learning disability that do work, most only work part time and are low paid.

Just 1 in 3 people with a learning disability take part in some form of education or training.

Children with a learning disability are often socially excluded and 8 out of 10 children with a learning disability are bullied.

1 in 2 families with a disabled child live in poverty.

At least half of all adults with a learning disability live in the family home - meaning that many don't get the same chances as other people to gain independence, learn key skills and make choices about their own lives.

58,000 people with a learning disability are supported by day care services.

People with a learning disability are 58 times more likely to die aged under 50 than other people. And four times as many people with a learning disability die of preventable causes as people in the general population. 

75% of GPs have received no training to help them treat people with a learning disability.

Less than a third of people with a learning disability have some choice of who they live with, and less than half have some choice over where they live. 

7 out of 10 families caring for someone with profound and multiple learning disabilities have reached or come close to ‘breaking point' because of a lack of short break services.

29,000 adults with a learning disability live with parents aged 70 or over, many of whom are too old or frail to continue in their caring role. In only 1 in 4 of these cases have local authorities planned alternative housing.

Mencap is here to make sure people with a learning disability have the chance to change the world they live in and live their lives as they choose.

Bare in mind that this is an old report fact and figures may have gone up and some may have even gone down since report was written.  https://www.mencap.org.uk/

I am  was I was born nearly 46 years ago in 1969 with Mild brain damage at the birth lack of oxygen to the left hand side of my brain. It caused me to have mild learning disabilities; mild Autism, Dyspraxia, Dyslexia and Epilepsy.

 For the last four years I have been a Self - Advocacy worker for Our Shout supported by Royal Wolverhampton Mencap, LD Awareness trainer,   LD Service User and LD MP. In 2010 I became a Group Support.

I was Self – Employed for a very short time, I had a very small business called Access All Areas Now! I shared with someone else with learning disabilities. We were supported by Mencap and Employment Pathways. We were Learning Disability Awareness trainers. In the end we had very little time, work and services had very little money to support us.

I have been writing short stories and my life story since I was 23 in 1993, I was stopping at my Grandmother’s house; I was very bored because I was recovering from Cancer of the throat. All of a sudden I watched the ten o; clock news with Travel McDonald telling the world that Britain’s care homes were closing down, it up set me very much.

 For some silly reason I was messing around with pen and paper. For some strange reason I started think about the writer Charles Dickens and the work he did orphans in the 1800s.

 This inspired me even though I didn't read any of Dickens’ work to write about people and animals worse off than myself. Raise half the money I earn to these charities.  I have had a poem published in each of 11 books. I have had very little support getting my work published due to my disabilities. I have been on a fare few Creative writing courses over the years. In 2009, I went on a Script and Screen course to try to better my writing then I helped out on a project at Penn Hall Special School helping the children to create their own Superheroes. I have also had little report printed in newsletters.

I have found that employers don’t understand learning disability and Mental Health problems. If only they could let us do our job to train them to understand us. Learning Disability Awareness training is what they need, like or not we are the experts and we are the ones to do the job. Sadly not everyone takes notice of the Disability Discrimination Act.  Most employers and the government make mistakes discriminating people with LD and Mental problems. The government spends the money on the wrong things. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting. The government just bores me but I need to fight my rights for learning disability. I am an LD MP if life is hard please contact me on sarajgorman@gmaill.com you are more than welcome if you are a person with LD, family member carer, friend, lover or etc.

Not all people are good with computers but most people LD and Mental problems are.

Not all of us can work to an employer speed but just need the right support to do the jobs quick and right.

We are seen as Health and Safety hazards to society full stop but with the right support we can be supported to be kept safe and healthily. With the right we can be supported to learn Health and Safety. 

What most of this website is about.

Like all disabilities Autism affects people’s lives different ways. For example there are different kinds of Autism like there are different kinds of disabilities. Two with the same disabilities may cope different. Two people the same Autism may cope different. Except the unexpected.

This book isn't only written for people with Autism but for people with all disabilities and health problems. This book isn't just about me as a person with Autism and other like but me as writer. The purpose of this website is to help people with LD and other people understand one another. This book is written for people with disabilities, health problems, carers, families, doctors, teachers, lawyers and etc. It isn't just about education LD awareness it’s about understanding one another as human beings. I will work my hardest to interest my readers.

If you are working in the field of learning disability and even mental health you will need to learn about Accessible Information. For example; brail and sign language. A lot people with LD and health problems find information in speaking and writing very hard to understand. Too much jargon is very hard for us to cope.

 This website is also linked onto my life story, my family history, which is about me and my disabilities. I started writing my life story 18 years ago. If this gets published I find hard to believe it will in my life time if it does. This will be my website I will write about the past, present and what I’d like to see in the future of learning disability. As a Self – Advocacy worker and writer I hope this book will help with LD and Mental Health problems to speak up for ourselves and others like us more.

I hope people will learn about the problems people with LD and health has to face in everyday lives and when people need support and when we don’t. People need to balance between support and independences. Some things in life people with LD can access other things we can’t. Society tells us that there’s a limit of what we can do. For example; college, work, friends, lovers and many that other people need less or no support with. There are 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK. Like all of us, they are individuals who want different things in life and need different levels of support. I hope to have all what i have written this website published in a book one to educate, train and teach past, present and future professions.

    Brief introduction of what Causes of learning disabilities and health problems.

•        Before birth, things can happen to the central nervous system (the brain and the spinal cord) that can cause a learning disability.

•        A child can be born with a learning disability if the mother has an accident or illness while she is pregnant, or if the unborn baby develops certain genes.

•        Genes are chemicals in our bodies that contain information about us - like how we look.

•        A person can be born with a learning disability if he or she does not get enough oxygen during childbirth or is born too early.

•        After birth, a learning disability can be caused by early childhood illnesses

Later in this book I will be telling you what causes what but I may not be able to tell you why.

I will tell you how learning disability and health problems can affect day to day lives and how it can slow us down. How the slowness can make society misunderstand our abilities to get on in life. In our own time we can creative talent which mostly gets pushed to side because most of us can only work in our speed which is different compared other people. Society isn’t used to slowness. In Britain we have created a Person Centered Planning service to give people with LD and Mental Health problems more choice and control over lives. jill.coleman@macintyrecharity.org 

I will also tell you some history of learning disability. Back in history people who took a long time to learn and do things would be left out.

 All about Autism.

Not a lot of people understand disabilities that are hidden because the disabilities aren’t seen. It‘s unknown whether I have Autism or not because It was unknown. As the years went by my family had seen films and may read books on Autism. What they have learned is about who have faced the same problems as me. Being diagnosed was unknown 40 odd years ago. If by any chance I have Autism, there must some hidden form of Autism because my disabilities are hidden. I think the mild form if there is one is Asperger Syndrome. I could be Asperger.

Ays get the right help with work, benefits, home and act.

It’s the same as (ADHD) (Attention Deficit disorder) which can causes behaviour problems the person doesn’t feel equal to other people not having same rights yet they are happy with the right support. When they feel angry it can be very upsetting for others around them. Some people all these disabilities or you could get many different people facing just one of those problems each.

Language problems are milder in people with Asperger; it’s the same with hand and co –nation abilities, interaction, imagination and communication. People with Autism Spectrum may find to understand gestures and facial expressions hard. Both forms of Autism can misunderstand jokes; they may get words like me and you mixed up, repeat what people say or what they have said, flap their hands, twirling toes, only have interest one topic, having their route but they may get very upset by changes. Don't be confused because this can vary from person to person it’s not the same for everyone. For example; these disabilities can linked with other disabilities or they can just

Example; these disabilities can either be linked or disability on its own.

It’s possible that I may have had ADHD as a child due to the tablets I was taking was far too strong for me. I was hyperactive

 At night and I couldn’t pay attention to the world around as a child.

 Since I have been off these tablets I have calmed down a lot but I do suffer from anxiety at times. I will say more about this subject later on in this book.

For example; I guess if I do have Autism that I have Asperger because my problems are very mild. Some people have more than one disability like myself for example; mild Autism, Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, Anxiety, depression and Epilepsy which I will take about later on this book.

Even though I haven't been diagnosed for my disabilities I read about the problems I face, which I learned to realise that I am not the only one to face otherwise their wouldn't be any research. In a strange way people with LD are our doctors because we only know what we face and feel. Whether we know what’s wrong is another matter. It helps if we come across someone going through same thing even we don’t wish them to do so. I will say more about these things in chapters to come.

We all know when we are children we like other children to be the same as us. If that’s not the case children can be very nasty to one another. What’s worse for people with LD is that LD slows us down. For example; I was bullied by children the age and younger because I couldn't tie my shoe laces. That doesn't mean say that I was the only child in the school who couldn't but it still shouldn't have been such a big deal.

Research says that people with Autism aren't very good with imagination but we find it hard to mix with people. As a child I used to make up my own pertain games, world and stories. I have always been one for been lonely but watching the world go by at the same time. I hate been closed from people but I'm not very good around strangers. We can find it hard to understand peoples’ thoughts and feelings mainly if they are strangers to us. We may behave in a strange manner in the eyes of the rest of the world. We find it very hard to make friends and lovers. If we ever do make friends and lovers we find it hard to keep them. Not forgetting poor eye contact.  As I have gone through adulthood I have learned to accept the world as I’m better than I used to but I feel I still have a long way to go.

The cause of Autism is much unknown yet in my case it was cause from lack of oxygen to the brain at the birth. I guess just before the 21^st century there was a case on the news about the MMR injection that protects Measles/rubella is a risk of Autism. I have found hard to believe ever since a learning disability can be a side – accept from anything let alone an injection. I guess it’s more than likely to cause Autism Spectrum than Asperger Syndrome because ASP SYN is milder than AU SP.