teams/services

Learning Disabilities (LD) Team

Who we are

We work with children/young people aged 0–18, with a moderate to severe learning disability, who have a North Derbyshire GP. You can ask for a referral through your GP, school, social worker or an NHS professional.

What we offer

We work with young people and their family at home, school, and other places that are important for them to access, by spending time with them and talking with their family about their mental health and challenging/distressing behaviour. 

We help to think about what might be leading to the challenging behaviours; sometimes the thing that started it is not the thing that keeps it going. 

We also information-gather from other professionals that know the young person. Based upon Positive Behaviour Support approaches, we then work together to develop an understanding about the young person and what we can do to reduce the challenging behaviours and improve the quality of life. 

The work we offer may include teaching alternative coping strategies, supporting communication and, most commonly, looking at the young person’s environment and how this can be managed. 

We may offer 1:1 time with the young person and their family and sometimes a psychiatrist may consider if medication would help the young person's mental health.

We work closely with the family/carers and the young person. We also work regularly with the schools and other professionals and have good links with the local Special Schools. 

What to expect

Appointments can vary between 45–60 minutes and can be at the young person’s home/school/clinic, depending on the individual need of the young person. Sometimes we’ll ask to see the young person separately or with the family, sometimes we’ll ask to see parents/carers alone. We will talk with other relevant people to the young person, like a teacher or social worker. 

We will ask parents/carers to commit to attending regular appointments, where we will work together on specific goals with the parents/carers/young person. The young person and/or their parents/carers will be asked to sign a consent form for information sharing agreements. We will provide a plan of the care we are offering, and we will always act to safeguard a young person. 

We will be open and honest with you about what our service can and can not offer in support of mental health and challenging behaviour.