The term ‘Learning disabilities’ covers a wide range of often complex conditions with equally complex needs. Someone with a learning disability will have their own unique and special talents, but they will often struggle with day-to-day tasks and routines.  

For some, they may just need a little extra time and support to learn and carry out different tasks, while others will require much greater care input with almost every aspect of daily life because they find understanding, learning and remembering particularly difficult, which can also impact on their ability to communicate effectively. 

Caring for someone with a learning disability 

Caring for someone with a learning disability can be extremely demanding on time, energy and emotions. Your friend or loved one can struggle with a range of things: 

  • Anxiety – especially if their routine deviates from normal 
  • Oversensitivity to sound, touch and scent – this can make every-day tasks such as bathing, extremely difficult 
  • Challenging behaviour 
  • Cooking and cleaning 
  • Personal care 
  • Arranging, and travelling to and from appointments 

To help maintain their self-esteem and develop their skills further, it is important to not step in and do the tasks for your friend or loved one, aiming instead to guide and support them in carrying out the activity themselves, however time-consuming that may be.  

Patience and compassion are essential to the role of a carer, as is your ability to put yourself in their shoes and try and experience what they are feeling so that you can understand how to best help them overcome the difficulty.  

Maintaining a consistent approach and developing regular daily routines are also very important as it helps to provide a stable environment and reduces anxiety.  

How Home Care can support the carers: 

Caring for someone with such complex and changing needs can be exhausting, both physically and emotionally, and for most carers of family members, it is a lifelong commitment to ensuring that their loved one leads their best life possible.  

Providing this level of care is very demanding and it is important to ensure that you make time to look after your own health and emotional needs. Whether this is through enlisting daily help with activities such as washing, dressing and getting up, or for more intense but short-term periods of respite care. Taking time out for yourself is essential in order to recharge your batteries so that you can help your loved one to lead as happy and fulfilling life as possible. 

How we can help 

Assist Care Group’s learning disability care team not only has many years of experience of working with clients with learning disabilities and their families, but they also undertake extensive and ongoing training to help them to provide the very best care possible for your loved one.  

Our expert carers not only ensure that their care needs are met, but they also help your loved one to build their confidence and boost their self-esteem by really getting to know them and supporting them to be as independent as possible.  

When someone has a learning disability, consistency and continuity of care are vitally important. Assist Care Group’s expert team understands this and spends time with you and your loved one, tailoring the care plan specifically to their needs. This means you can relax safe in the knowledge that your loved one is happy and in expert hands. 

Contact the team at Assist Care Group to find out how we can help you and your loved one.