I am a learning disability nurse and worked with a man in his forties living in his own flat with staff support. He had Downs Syndrome and a moderate learning disability. He was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and predicted to have twelve to eighteen months left to live. He did not have the understanding that he was going to die, and with all the help would never understand this, but knew he had a sore throat and that we were trying to help. The things that he really struggled with was not the cancer but the people that descended on his life. the endless people wanting to visit interrupted his model making and this really upset him. So we all (eight of us) agreed that we would professionally trust each other and one person would visit a week and report their findings to all the others. This really changed things and his level of distress dropped as his normal routine and quietness of his flat could resume. The carers also felt supported as we laid out a clear plan as to who to contact for which issue, preventing time wasting phoning seven people before getting to the right eighth one! common sense wouldn’t you think? professional trust felt pretty scary but in the patients best interests.
