SCLD team member Andy Miller reflects on the 2019 national survey of people with learning disabilities in Scotland, “How’s Life?” and considers the upheaval of the past few years… We’ve all just completed the census, the national survey of all households in Scotland. The previous one was eleven years ago (usually it’s ten, but Covid), the same year a tsunami …
The COVID-19 guided self-help booklets have won in the ‘COVID Response’ category at the University of Glasgow College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences (MVLS) Public Engagement Awards 2021. The booklets were developed in partnership with the Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities (SCLD) and a team of academics, led by Professor Andrew Jahoda from the University of Glasgow, …
The COVID-19 guided self-help booklets (originally released in 2020) have been updated to reflect the current COVID-19 (Coronavirus) situation in Scotland. It is now almost two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 and its accompanying restrictions have had a significant impact on the emotional wellbeing of many people with learning disabilities. We have now updated the guided …
The UKRI ‘Coronavirus and people with learning disabilities’ study was a year long project involving researchers and organisations across the UK to find out and report on how coronavirus affected, and is still affecting the lives of people with a learning disability, as well as their parents and carers. This study was necessary because no other data collections across the …
A reflection on 2021 As storms set in and winter takes hold in Scotland, it can feel like the end of another unforgiving year. Yet Christmas and its counterparts: Diwali, Ramadan, Passover and the many other religious and secular festivals that mark important points in our calendars share a commonality; the sentiment of hope. These occasions give us a …
Scotland is emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions which we have adapted to living within for the past 18 months are beginning to be eased. For many people with learning disabilities in Scotland, the pandemic has been a very unsettling time; many people with learning disabilities have been shielding and many have experienced cuts to their support packages …
In December 2020 SCLD issued a statement in regard to human rights concerns over the prioritisation of people with learning/intellectual disabilities in the COVID-19 vaccination rollout. In view of the recent publication of research, and from our own dialogue with people with learning/intellectual disabilities and the organisations who support them, we have issued an updated statement on the necessity of …
The Scottish Learning Disabilities Observatory have published statistics on the mortality rate for people with learning/intellectual disabilities in Scotland during the COVID-19 pandemic. The statistics show that people within the learning/intellectual disabilities population were more than three times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those in the general population. SCLD has issued a statement in response to the publication …
As of Tuesday 5th January 2021, the Scottish Government has announced a nationwide lockdown. People are advised to stay at home as much as possible and to only leave home for essential reasons. You can find out more about the new restrictions here. To help people with learning/intellectual disabilities to understand how the lockdown restrictions will affect them, the Scottish …
It has become clear from UK-wide data that people with a learning/intellectual disability are disproportionately at risk from, and affected by, the COVID-19 virus. We are now hearing positive news about the development and approval of vaccines for Covid-19. The following Position Statement from the Scottish Commission for People with Learning Disabilities (SCLD) outlines the human rights case on why …
