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Health Innovation East Midlands and West Midlands jointly hosted a virtual Innovation Exchange event focused on helping people with a learning disability, who are at risk of behaviour that challenges, to avoid harm from psychotropic medicines.
There are approximately 1.3 million people with a learning disability in England, with around 14% prescribed psychotropic medicines, compared to just 1% of the general population.
While these medicines can be beneficial for conditions such as psychosis, depression, anxiety, and epilepsy, they also carry risks of side effects and reduced quality of life if not carefully managed.
Through engagement with national and regional stakeholders, four priority challenge areas were identified where innovation is most needed.
The event showcased innovators who have solutions that:
This webinar was open to all health and care providers and provided an opportunity to hear about ready-to-implement solutions that are already making an impact within health and care.
If you have any queries regarding this event, please email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Summaries of the innovations presented at the event.
MDColl is a system that helps healthcare teams manage their meetings about patient care. It lets team members add patient information, reasons for discussion, results and plans in one shared place before and during meetings, helping staff to prepare faster, keep data up to date, and make better decisions for patient care.
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Healum provides a digital care management platform and mobile tools that enable shared decision making, coordinated multi-agency care, safe medicines optimisation and access to behavioural and non-pharmacological support. It helps professionals, carers and individuals create and follow personalised care plans that improve outcomes.
ONE Referral is a cloud based multi-disciplinary team meeting platform which allows clinicians and other specialists to work together to plan optimal patient care. It simplifies and safeguards the referral process by providing a single, reliable pathway for patients to be referred, tracked, and reviewed.
SimFlow.ai is a remote, AI-powered simulation platform where health and social care staff practice high-risk conversations with lifelike virtual patients, families and colleagues. It provides instant feedback and analytics to build safer, more person-centred communication at scale for people with a learning disability. Read their article: Reducing harm from psychotropic medicines in people with a learning disability: why communication matters.
HealthWebsites are a group of age-appropriate and need-specific health websites offering advice and support. The websites provide expert guidance for parents of babies and young children, fun and interactive content for children aged 5–11 and reliable information for teenagers aged 11–19. A new site focused on neurodiversity and learning disabilities is in development.
ChatHealth is a secure NHS-developed texting platform designed to enable safe and confidential two-way communication between healthcare professionals and service users. It offers easily accessible and timely two-way communication that is simple for users, who can send a simple text message from their phone, and is efficient and effective for services to deliver.
Rix Wiki software enables people to create their own personalised and secure websites. They can be used to create multimedia person centred plans that use video, pictures, sound and words to capture the voice, skills, aspirations and needs of the individual. The Rix Wiki has been developed with and for people with learning disabilities, their families, carers, and support professionals.
AboutMi is a secure digital communication passport (Web App) that stores and shares essential medical, social and environmental information. It gives people with learning disabilities, families and professionals a single, up-to-date, person-centred source of truth to support safe, consistent care across settings.
The Medii App is a digital health app designed for individuals with learning disabilities and autism to help them with their health and wellbeing. Users can record things like sleep, mood or health information on their smartphone or tablet, share it with their NHS care team, and use it as a personal health diary to support better care.
The Learning Disability adapted Hope Programme is an in-person, group self-management intervention designed with and for people with learning disabilities. It uses easy-read resources, visual aids, and interactive sessions to support wellbeing, emotional regulation, and shared decision-making, with carers or support workers actively involved.