Learning Disability Week
20 – 26 June 2022
Learning Disability Week 2022, taking place 20 – 26 June, is an annual campaign organised by charity Mencap. Mencap advocates for people living with learning disabilities on a huge scale nationally to fight and campaign for a fair society aiming to smash stigmas and end discrimination.
Each year, the campaign follows a theme. This year’s theme:
Living Life with a Learning Disability
“This year, we want to show how people with a learning disability are reconnecting with friends and their communities. We also want to talk about the issues many people still face after the end of COVID restrictions, like still having to isolate or dealing with poor mental health and anxiety.” – Mencap
Click on the image below for more information about Mencap’s campaign and to find out how you can get involved!
What’s happening in West Yorkshire?
Leeds Mencap are having a “wear a cap” week to raise awareness and money to support people with a learning disability engage in meaningful activities, our service are getting involved by wearing a cap or hat in the office.
Wakefield Council and the Wakefield Learning Disability and Autism Partnership Board are hosting an online art exhibition to celebrate the creativity of people with learning disabilities. To mark the week, they have invited adults with a learning disability to take part in an online art exhibition by submitting artwork.
Click on the below image during Learning Disability Week to see the online exhibition which will also be shared across the Council’s social media.
Our Service
The West Yorkshire Liaison & Diversion service strives to support any individuals with a learning disability in the criminal justice system. We have a dedicated internal pathway in place to maximise our ability to offer support to those who have a learning disability through this traumatic time and facilitate the understanding and cooperation of all those criminal justice professionals to ensure fairness and equality for the individual on their path through the criminal justice process.
As well as looking to support service users, we help support and educate colleagues and other associated criminal justice professionals in their knowledge and understanding so they can more proficiently assist their own service users who may have a learning disability. This involves providing training, online workshops, group discussions and presentations.
Our service’s Mental Health Practitioner & Learning Disability Nurse has been working with Coventry University in developing an app to provide information and support for people working with individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism who come into contact with the Criminal Justice System.
Click on the below image for more information about this fantastic new app, including lived experience stories and useful resources.
