Ct263: Understand the Context of Supporting Individuals with Learning Disabilities

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CT263: Understand the Context of Supporting Individuals with Learning Disabilities 1.1 Legislation and policies that are designed to promote the human rights, inclusion, equal life chances and citizenship of individuals with learning disabilities. 1. The Mental Capacity Act 2005. This provides a framework to empower and protect people who may lack the capacity to make some decisions for themselves. 2. The Equality Act. The Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination against people with the protected characteristics that are specified in section 4 of the Act. Disability is one of the specified protected characteristics. 3. Equality and Diversity Policy and procedure. 1.2 This legislation and policies provides a framework to ensure that people with learning disabilities are treated with respect and dignity without violation of their civil and basic human rights. 2.1 The Department of Health, in Valuing People (2001), defines “Learning Disability” as: • Significantly reduced ability to understand new or complex information, to learn new skills • Reduced ability to cope independently which starts before adulthood with lasting effects on development. Learning Disabilities can also be defined as a variety of disorders that affect the acquisition, retention, understanding, organization or use of verbal and/or non-verbal information. 2.2 A learning disability happens when a person’s brain development is affected, either before they are born, during their birth or in early childhood. Examples of causes of Learning Disabilities include: • The mother becoming ill in pregnancy • Problems during birth that stop enough oxygen getting to the brain • The unborn baby developing certain genes • The parents passing certain genes to the unborn baby that make having a learning disability more likely. (known as inherited learning disability) • Illness such as
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