People with a learning disability from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic backgrounds experience significant inequalities in relation to their health outcomes. In 2023, Race Equality Foundation and Learning Disability England led by University of Central Lancashire released the We Deserve Better: Ethnic minorities with a learning disability and access to healthcare report.
We found shocking disparities in life expectancies for people with a learning disability from Black, Asian, and minoritised ethnic backgrounds, with the average age of death being 34 years compared to 62 years for White individuals.
The importance of annual health checks
Despite these statistics, it doesn’t have to be this way. Health initiatives such as annual health checks help improve the life expectancy of people with a learning disability. annual health checks are an NHS preventative intervention designed to help detect and address health conditions, with the aim of reducing the number of early and avoidable deaths for people with a learning disability.
Annual health checks should result in the GP giving the person and their carer or support network a health action plan and there is evidence which demonstrates annual health checks can positively influence survival. However, research has found that only 25% of the estimated 1.1 million people in England with a learning disability are registered on the Learning Disability Register.
The Learning Disability Mortality Review (LeDeR) 2022 also revealed that 27% of people with a learning disability did not receive an annual health checks in the year before their death and lower rates of annual health checks uptake have also been identified among those from Black, Asian, and Mixed backgrounds (Hatton, 2023).
Barriers often include:
- a lack of reasonable adjustments
- a failure to recognise and accommodate an individual’s needs
- a lack of information in an Easy Read format
- Language barriers
- Cultural and religious insensitivities
Resource library: Increasing the uptake ofannual health checks
Building upon our research, the Race Equality Foundation and Learning Disability England have been working with people with lived experience from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic communities to raise awareness of and improve the uptake of annual health checks.
To continue to raise awareness we have produced an important set of resources to help:
Video made by our co-production group
Dr Jahan Zabit Foster’s overview of the project
Webinar
Jabeer Butt OBE and Dr Jahan Foster, Race Equality Foundation – Welcome and Overview of the project
Nicholas Garvey, member of co-production group – Pre-recorded presentation
Ramandeep Kaur, co-production group – Importance of co-production and experience taking part in the project
Jahrese Taylor (Learning Disability User Involvement & Engagement Project Manager, Advocacy Project) and Jill Huntesmith and Jide Akinbiye, members of co-production group – Involvement in the project and experiences and benefits of AHC
Nicola Easy, NHS England – Importance of this work and where the project sits within Health Improvement Learning Disability & Autism team
Habib Naqvi, NHS RHO – How this project links into the work of the NHS RHO and how we can improve outcomes moving forward
