ABSTRACT
The demonstration programme was to cover a number of adult groups: people with learning difficulties, people with mental health problems, elderly physically frail people, elderly people with mental health problems, young people with multiple disabilities, and people with physical disabilities. For people with learning difficulties they asked ward staff to indicate ‘level of handicap’, distinguishing just four categories (profound, severe, moderate, mild). Responses thus represent subjective ratings of a large number of staff, but nevertheless give a good general indication of severity of learning difficulty. For residents with learning difficulties or mental health problems, basic data on length of stay in hospital suggest considerable dislocation from the wider community. People with learning difficulties are not so likely to have had repeated admissions to hospital. Once admitted to hospital they usually remain there, with fewer discharges and readmissions. Almost half had experienced no previous admissions, and only 5 percent of movers had more than three previous admissions.
