Intellectually disabled people stuck in psychiatric hospitals in Scotland because of shortage of community care, report says

From The Scotsman in the UK:

People with learning difficulties have been "bed blocking" in the city's psychiatric hospital for up to nine years, a charity said today.

There are at least 15 people in Morningside's Royal Edinburgh Hospital who are ready to go back into the community but have nowhere to go. As a result they are either staying on learning disability wards, or being placed alongside people who have far more profound psychiatric conditions.

Capital organisation Powerful Partnerships said it had 15 clients who had been waiting in the hospital for anything between six months to nine years in the most extreme case. That patient has serious learning disabilities and does not have the mental capacity to make his own decisions.

He has been a "voluntary" resident at the hospital for nine years, even though he is clinically ready to rebuild his life outwith hospital grounds, because a care package cannot be agreed for him.

He is one of many, according to Powerful Partnerships, an organisation that offers advocacy to people with learning disabilities.

The charity's project worker Daniel Curran said recent headlines saying there were no cases of long-term bed blocking in Edinburgh did not paint a true picture of the position.

He said: "It's costing the health board thousands, it means there aren't enough beds for those who come in with learning disabilities, and means other people are placed inappropriately in other wards where the nurses aren't trained to deal with them.

"There are all kinds of reasons for it, sometimes the NHS and council can't agree on a care package depending on what nursing would be required, sometimes they are waiting for a social work assessment. Some feel they have to stay there because they've never been given any other option."

The council said last month that targets on bed blocking – 'delayed discharge' – had been met for the first time. But these didn't include psychiatric patients.

Mr Curran said: "We had one man who was ready to leave but hadn't been assessed, and by then the prospect of staying in the ward had concerned him so much that his mental health worsened."

A document produced jointly by the health board and city council said: "The Royal Edinburgh is experiencing a high level of impending delays caused by the temporary accommodation of between six and ten learning disability patients per month.

"This situation has been compounded by delays in the opening of new supported accommodation units.

"In the meantime we are exploring options to expedite the pace of discharges for learning disability patients who do not require acute mental health beds, into more appropriate placements."