Adults with learning disabilities die 20 years early, says report

People with learning disabilities and autism in England die almost 20 years younger than the rest of the population, said a long -awaited report.

The annual mortality review commanded by the NHS England was initially published last year but was faced with repeated delays.

He revealed that 39% of the deaths of people with learning disabilities and autism were classified as avoidable in 2023, almost twice as high as the general population.

The NHS England said that it was deploying more training for staff and the identification of patients with learning disabilities earlier so that they can receive more appropriate care.

The Mencap charity says that around 1.5 million people in the United Kingdom have a learning disorder which it defines as an intellectual capacity reduced for life, generally identified shortly after birth or in the first years.

The review of the mortality of learning disabilities (Leder) was created in 2015 to try to understand why so many people in this group were dying younger than the wider population and avoidable causes.

The latest research, led by a team from King’s College London, examined the death data of 3,556 adults in 2023 and compared it to previous years.

He found that although there have been improvements, life expectancy increasing slightly to 62.5 years, people with learning disabilities and autism still experienced significant inequalities.

“These new sudden figures show that people with a learning disorder die less than 19.5 years younger than the general population,” said Mencap Director Jon Sparkes.

“People with a learning disorder and their families deserve better. Nobody should die early because they do not get the right treatment.”

In 2023, the most common causes of preventable death in people with learning disabilities were flu, pneumonia, digestive tube cancers and heart disease.

David Lodge, 40, lived with multiple learning disabilities, including autism, dyspraxia and dysarthria, which prevented him from speaking.

In January 2022, he was taken to Hull Royal Infimmy after being severely dehydrated on the ground next to his father Peter who had collapsed and died unexpectedly.

His sister Dr Keri Lodge, a consultant psychiatrist, said that there was a “overwhelming emergency” when her brother arrived at the hospital.

“Any other 40-year-old man who had drunk anything or eaten for days would be treated very quickly, but with David, there was none of this,” she said.

“There was just this sense of:” We will put you in this side piece and will keep you away. “”

A later investigation learned that there were several failures in David’s care.

He was not offered pain relief, the basic examinations were not carried out and he was transferred to an acute admission unit at the intensive care place, where he died a few hours later.

“They were followed by the fact that he had a learning disorder,” said Dr. Lodge.

“I think it would have been treated very differently if it was not the case and it is so difficult to live with this knowledge.”

Humber Health Partnership spokesperson, the NHS Trust that manages the hospital, apologized to the family and said its processes had been modified to ensure that patients with learning disabilities receive compassionate treatment at any time.

The latest report revealed that 37% of the deaths of people with learning disabilities or autism involved a form of delay in care or treatment, while 28% reported cases where diagnostic and treatment guidelines have not been observed.

Andre Strydom, chief investigator of the report and professor in intellectual disabilities at King’s College in London, said the progress had been made by the NHS in certain fields, but there was a need for initiatives such as annual health checks and better support for patients with learning disabilities admitted to the hospital.

Richard Keegan Bull, a research assistant with a learning disorder from Kingston University who helped produce the report, the BBC told that he had found the results “really overwhelming”.

“People [with learning disabilities] are still dying quite young in hospitals and do not receive the right support and the good care they need, “he said.

“It could be me or it could be someone I know and I want these dead to be taken seriously.”

An NHS spokesperson said that the report showed that progress was made, but it was clear that more should be made to meet the needs of people with learning disabilities.

“The NHS has deployed training at more than three million members of health and care staff to improve the care offered to invalidity and autistic learning patients, and all disabled people have a” reasonable digital flag “so that they are recognized and cared for in an appropriate manner when obtaining NHS support,” she added.

In a statement to the House of Commons, the Minister of Health, Stephen Kinnock, described the difference in life expectancy for people with learning disabilities as “unacceptable”, but said that the number of cases of cases that identified good NHS practice had increased by 10% since 2021 and that he was determined to result in new improvements.