{"id":124783,"date":"2025-09-09T09:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T09:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/124783\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T09:04:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T09:04:11","slug":"early-deaths-of-people-with-learning-disabilities-shocking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/124783\/","title":{"rendered":"Early deaths of people with learning disabilities ‘shocking’"},"content":{"rendered":"

India PollockSocial affairs correspondent, BBC Wales<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

This is Sara Pickard. She works for the charity Mencap Cymru. She lives in Cardiff<\/p>\n

This is an easy English version of the story. For the standard English version, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We know that people with a learning disability get worse healthcare than other people.<\/p>\n

A report<\/a> said that people with learning disabilities often do not live as long as people without learning disabilities.<\/p>\n

It said in Wales most people with a learning disability die at about 67 years old.<\/p>\n

But most people without a learning disability die about the age of 87 years old.<\/p>\n

This is 20 years longer.<\/p>\n

Another report<\/a> said that nearly four out of 10 deaths of people with learning disabilities in England were avoidable.<\/p>\n

Avoidable means that it did not need to happen.<\/p>\n

This means that with the right care these people could have lived.<\/p>\n

Many people say this is wrong and things must change.<\/p>\n

One mum told us that she thinks people with learning disabilities are not treated as important.<\/p>\n

She said this was very wrong.<\/p>\n

The Welsh government said it wanted to make healthcare better for people with learning disabilities so they can live longer.<\/p>\n

\"UnitedUnited Nations<\/p>\n

Sara Pickard is also a councillor. This means local people voted for her to represent them and their community<\/p>\n

Sara Pickard has Down’s syndrome. She said life can feel like a hurdles race.<\/p>\n

She said: “Hurdles come up in life and I’m jumping over each one and nothing is going to stop me.”<\/p>\n

Sara said she has good healthcare.<\/p>\n

But she knows other people with learning disabilities who do not get good healthcare.<\/p>\n

Sara said it was shocking that people with learning disabilities often die earlier than other people.<\/p>\n

She said people who make decisions need to listen more to people with learning disabilities.<\/p>\n

What are annual health checks?<\/p>\n

In Wales, GPs must invite people with learning disabilities to have a health check every year, even when they feel well.<\/p>\n

Annual health checks are meant to help people with learning disabilities stay healthy.<\/p>\n

But Sara said they do not always help everybody.<\/p>\n

She said healthcare staff can help people with learning disabilities understand what is happening when they go to the doctor or hospital.<\/p>\n

Why do people with learning disabilities die younger?<\/p>\n

People are working hard to find out why people with learning disabilities die younger.<\/p>\n

\"DrDr Dawn Cavanagh<\/p>\n

This is Dr Dawn Cavanagh with her son Jack who is 22 years old<\/p>\n

Jack has a severe learning disability and lives in a care home.<\/p>\n

This means he lives in a home with carers who look after him all the time.<\/p>\n

Dr Cavanagh said she was worried about Jack when he was ill.<\/p>\n

She said she told people that he was ill but they did not listen to her.<\/p>\n

Jack went to hospital three weeks later with a very serious illness.<\/p>\n

Dr Cavanagh said Jack is better but it took a long time.<\/p>\n

She said healthcare staff only saw Jack’s learning disability and not that he was ill.<\/p>\n

This meant doctors did not give Jack the right help when he needed it.<\/p>\n

Dr Cavanagh said people with learning disabilities are often treated badly.<\/p>\n

She said “that tells me is that my son’s health and life do not matter”. <\/p>\n

\"Stuart<\/p>\n

Stuart Todd is a professor at the University of South Wales<\/p>\n

Stuart Todd said some things at the doctors are now better for people with learning disabilities.<\/p>\n

But he wondered what it was like for people who had to go to hospital in an emergency.<\/p>\n

He said there should be a plan to make sure doctors and hospitals work together to help people with learning disabilities.<\/p>\n

Professor Todd is doing new research about the care at the end of life for adults with learning disabilities.<\/p>\n

He said that people with learning disabilities sometimes die without the care they need.<\/p>\n

The Welsh government is in charge of health care in Wales.<\/p>\n

They said they have a plan to help people with learning disabilities live longer.<\/p>\n

The Welsh government also said they teach people in hospitals and doctors’ surgeries about learning disabilities so they can make care better.<\/p>\n

The Welsh government said they were working with a group of people with learning disabilities to make healthcare better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"India PollockSocial affairs correspondent, BBC Wales BBC This is Sara Pickard. She works for the charity Mencap Cymru.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-124783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}