Lovin’ Feeling
Report
Aims of the day
What we did on the day
What people said
What we learnt
Aims of the day
One of the big aims of the day was to bring mainstream and specialist learning disability services together.
This was based on the principles of “Valuing People Now”, that mainstream services should understand and take on the needs of people with learning disabilities.
We also wanted services to share their information on relationships and sexuality with people with learning disabilities and each other.
We invited the commissioners to hear what people with learning disabilities wanted from services and to see how this was reflected in their policies and commissioning.
Information
Training
Another of the big aims of the day was to give training to people with learning disabilities on relationships and sexuality. Again, this was taken from “Valuing People Now” and is a priority for the South West Regional Forum for People with Learning Disabilities and Bournemouth People First membership.
What we did on the day
We set up a market place outside the main conference room. We had a mixture of mainstream and specialist services including:
ŸCommunity Sexual Health Services
ŸDorset Healthcare University NHS
Foundation Trust
ŸThe Genito-Urinary Medicine Team
(GUM), Royal Bournemouth Hospital
ŸNHS Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset
Health Facilitators
ŸBournemouth Safeguarding Team
ŸBournemouth Learning Disability
integrated Team
ŸPicture Of Health, South West
Strategic Health Authority
Before the conference started and over lunch time, people had the chance to talk to services, find out what services they offered and take information away
with them.
What we did on the day
The day was facilitated by
Dave Hingsburger. Dave is the Director of Clinical and Educational Services for Vita Community Living Services, Canada.
Dave is also a consultant in a variety of areas to do with the provision of services to people with learning disabilities,
focusing primarily on: problematic sexual behaviour, understanding problem behaviour and abuse prevention.
Dave lectures widely internationally and was inducted into the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame.
Dave started by introducing the rules of the day with role plays.
Then people were introduced to types of relationships, the differences between them and how to keep safe:
ŸStranger
ŸStranger you see often
ŸStranger whose knows your name
What we did on the day
ŸFriend you run into ŸFriend you call
ŸFriend you call when you need help
ŸMan and woman in love ŸMan and man in love
ŸWoman and woman in love
Again this was facilitated by the use of role play.
We then watched a clip from the Sex Education Show (Channel 4).
This showed a young man with leaning disabilities who talked about wanting a relationship and how his Mother was supporting him.
Dave then went on to introduce the right to a relationship using role play with members of the audience.
We then saw the 2nd clip from the Sex Education Show, about dating.
Dave then talked about consent, again, using role play.
What we did on the day
Training/Workshop
We then watched the last clip from the Sex Education Show. This was about a married couple with learning disabilities, who talked about their relationship and sex life.
The last part of the morning was an introduction to sexual health from the Community Sexual Health Team and Dorset Healthcare University NHS
Foundation Trust .
Over lunch people also had a chance to meet up with other people with learning disabilities at “The Place To Meet”. This was facilitated by supporters and helped people to get to know each other in a safe place.
We also asked people to write anonymous questions about relationships and sexuality for a panel discussion in the afternoon.
The Question Panel was made up of range of people including: Dave Hingsburger, Sexual Health Team, NHS Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset and Bournemouth Safeguarding Team.
The Place to Meet
What people said
Easy information on relationships and sex 15 More events like today 13 More courses and training
on relationships and sex 12 Information about you rights 12 A day for Parents and carers about 12 relationships and sex
Singles’ nights 11 Easy read plan about relationships 9 Gay and lesbian support group 6
In the last part of the day we asked people with a learning disability to vote for the top thing they wanted to happen around Relationships and Sexuality.
We had a really positive response from the mainstream health services, who were keen to take part, including the Community Sexual Health Services, Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust and the
Genito-Urinary Medicine Team, Royal Bournemouth Hospital.
We learnt that there is a lot of work happening in services around
relationships and sexuality, but this needs to be joined up.
We heard during the Question Panel
that people with learning disabilities did not always know what services were available to them.
Working together
What we learnt
We learnt that people with learning disabilities wanted more days like this and more training.
We need break the training down into small parts, so that there is not too much information for people to take in.
Training
?
We learnt that information around sexual health needs to be looked at in smaller groups due to the sensitively of the subject and issues around safeguarding being raised.
We learnt that Bournemouth Council’s Personal Relationship and Sexual Health Policy was out of date and that the both courses stage 1 and 2 were no longer running due to the changes to
Day Services.
Training
What we learnt
We learnt that there was some easy information available around relationships and sexuality, but some of it was very out of date.
It was clear that training and easy read
information go hand in hand. It is important that the mainstream and learning disability services use consistent, up to date and easy to read resources when working with individuals and groups.
People with learning disabilities also wanted rights information on relationships and sexuality, which could be used with the above.
What we learnt
Relationships is 1 of the top 3 priorities of the Bournemouth and Poole Joint Learning Disabilities Big Plan.
Bournemouth Learning Disability
Partnership Board have agreed for the “What We Do in The Community” Sub Group to take forward this priority.
NHS Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset have been consulting and are reviewing their Commissioning Plan for Sexual Health.
The vision is that all people have the right to positive sexual health.
One of the main aims is to “reduce sexual health inequalities between the general population and vulnerable and socially disadvantaged who are most at risk of poor sexual health”.
The “What We Do in The Community”
Sub Group will bring together commissioners and services from Health and Community care to review their guidelines and action the relationship priority.
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