Not roaming in the gloaming

[the photo is of Lennox Castle, taken from this website http://www.lennoxcastlestories.co.uk/news which is well worth a browse]


Just a quick post, this one. I didn't realise until today (although I should have known) that Scotland has been conducting a census on the number of people in learning disability and mental health inpatient services in Scotland. The most recent one I can find was conducted at the end of October 2014 (I think another one is planned in the spring of 2016?). Most of the information in the reports I could find is not specifically provided for people with learning disabilities (see here for reports from the Census http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/06/7555 ), but some headline figures are...

1) There are 3,909 people in total NHS Scotland learning disability/mental health inpatient services.

Of these, 230 are people with learning disabilities, of which 226 are under a learning disability psychiatrist and 181 are in learning disability units. The median length of stay for people with learning disabilities in NHS Scotland inpatient services was 33 months.

Out of this 230, it looks like at least 67 people with learning disabilities are in NHS Scotland forensic inpatient units (they are all under a learning disability psychiatrist).

2) There are 128 people in total in these types of inpatient services outwith (I do love the word 'outwith') NHS Scotland - these are places commissioned by the NHS in Scotland but are either private facilities in Scotland (96 people in total) or facilities in England (47 people in total).

Of these, 31 are people with learning disabilities in inpatient services outwith NHS Scotland. The median length of time since people had been admitted to their inpatient unit was 56 months.

So in total, there are 261 people with learning disabilities in inpatient units commissioned by the NHS in Scotland.

Not sure there's a huge amount to say about this, except:

1) On an English parochial note, not much of the discrepancy between the English Learning Disability Census and the English Assuring Transformation Dataset (which records around 500 people fewer than the Census) is going to be due to Scottish people with learning disabilities being placed in English inpatient services.

2) On a broad population basis, the rates of people with learning disabilities in inpatient services in England and Scotland are broadly similar.

I'd be very interested to know if there is similar information that I've missed for Wales and Northern Ireland.