At The Advocacy Project, we help people speak up and make decisions about their health, well-being and social care. As part of this, we work with people with learning disabilities and other organisations to identify health inequalities and reduce people’s barriers to healthcare.
10 million people die each year from cancer and we know that patients with learning disabilities have lower rates of cancer screening and lower life expectancy than those without. To save lives, there needs to be equitable access to cancer prevention, support and treatment.
Our project in the borough of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea aims to improve access to cancer screening for people with learning disabilities through identifying and reducing obstacles to screening and support services. We want to raise awareness and understanding of the risks of not attending screening appointments and make sure that those with learning disabilities are not disadvantaged and can be confident about what to expect from appointments. We also support healthcare providers to understand how to talk about what’s happening, and what to expect, in a way that is accessible to everyone.
The project supports better access to cancer screening services through the production and distribution of easy read resources, creating videos which tell positive screening stories from those who have accessed the services in the past, and using a peer support model to host face-to-face community events.
We’ve created a suite of easy-read documents focused on NHS cancer-screening programmes which you can find links to below:
- Easy read cancer screening
- Easy read cervical cancer screening
- Easy read breast cancer screening
- Easy read bowel cancer screening
The project also worked closely with carers, GPs and nurses to produce materials to support their work with people with learning disabilities who may need to access cancer support services.
For ‘Top Tips’ on how you can help people with learning disabilities navigate their health appointment:
You can watch videos from people who accessed this screening programme by following this link.
To find out more about partnering with us in our work, then please contact our Healthwatch Service Manager Ritushree Guha: or call on 020 8106 1474.