National programme gets ready for launch

Walsall Teaching Primary Care Trust (Walsall tPCT) is taking part in a launch event of a new National Pacesetters Programme. The programme has been developed in partnership between local communities, local NHS organisations and the Department of Health and aims to deliver equality and diversity improvements and innovations. The event is taking place on 13 November 2006, at The Venue Conference and Banqueting Centre in Dudley and will highlight the overall aims and objectives of the programme.

Nanette Grant, Head of Equality and Diversity for Walsall, said: “Walsall tPCT is committed to and signed up to the principals of the pacesetters programme. We will be working in partnership with Walsall MBC to further develop work that is currently taking place within the Integrated Learning Disabilities Team. The core elements of the programme will be utilised and embedded within the Walsall tPCT equalities plan for the future.”

Walsall Integrated Learning Disability Service is a joint health and social care service for Walsall people with learning disabilities and is one of three pilot sites in the West Midlands involved in the initiative. The idea behind the Walsall scheme is to ensure that residents with a Learning Disability receive the same level of health care as everyone else. Pacesetters acknowledged that people with a Learning Disability are not always able to communicate and are often unable to access the health care they need. The programme aims to identify the ways individuals with a learning disability find it difficult to access health services and ways in which they can provide them with the tools to overcome the problem. The initiative in Walsall has led to the development of a filofax filled with information such as individual’s learning disability, methods of communication, medication, allergies and contact numbers for carers. The filofax is handed to doctors, nurses and other health carers who will be able to identify the individual’s needs and provide them with the service and support needed for them to maintain good health.

There will be presentations between 12.30pm and 4pm from all three West Midlands pilot sites, a National perspective from the Department of Health and an opportunity to network with national leads, local service providers and service users.