Health & Emotional Wellbeing

‘Good health, both physical and mental is important to us all and mostly we endeavour to do all the right things to keep it so. Despite this, things happen, and we then try to sort things out our self or indeed, seek professional help and advice.  

Family and friends often play their part too and increasingly people turn to social media. This is all well and good and for a good percentage of us, we find the help we need. However, even without an impairment   or disability many of can struggle to get satisfactory support or treatment.

Great strides in understanding disability have been made in the last two decades but again the navigation to get the right support can be fraught with problems leaving many families and individuals feeling   disappointed, let down and dissatisfied. 

This is not true in all cases and there are some excellent examples of people with a disability getting the right help to meet their needs.

One of the well-known barriers to the receipt of good care is Diagnostic Overshadowing and this is when a patient’s symptoms are incorrectly attributed to a mental health issue, behavioural problem, learning disability or other forms of sensory impairment.  In this circumstance, it is imperative individual, families or indeed professional both understand this and have the right information to enable them to advocate satisfactorily and get the just help they need.  

All elements of a persons need must be met and as we all are aware within ourselves and others it can take one small thing to change how we are feeling and acting. 

The understanding of emotional and behavioural needs are key elements and for those with additional needs the ability to be understood and the person have their needs met requires knowledge of the person, skill and understanding and an ability to work out what is getting in the way which could be pain, feeling unwell, feeling worried or anxious, a change in people or environment; every person’s reasons and needs will be different. 

Difficulties with expression and being understood can present themselves through behaviour, all behaviour is functional and provides the person with what they need, finding out the purpose of the behaviour is essential to bring about that equilibrium. 

Health services can help with these needs as well as voluntary sector organisations.  

The links we have provided on this site can help. We have also included The Challenging Behaviour Foundation’s website too as information for families and carers which helps to look at the whys and wherefores of why behaviour might be happening’.