NICE – the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence – co-hosted a twitter chat with @WeLDNurses to discuss some new guidance for the diagnosis and management of mental health problems in people with learning disabilities.

The NICE guidance calls for everyone with learning difficulties to undergo a mental health check every year, as fears that there may be thousands of people not getting the diagnosis and support they need.

The #WeLDNs twitter chat welcomed people with an interest or expertise in the field of learning disabilities and mental health care to discuss how  to implement these checks, and share good practice for how services can  better support those in need.

Three topic experts from the NICE guideline committee joined the chat to answer questions and explain the recommendations.

They were:

• Professor Sally-Ann Cooper, deputy director of Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow

• Dr Regi T Alexander, research lead consultant in Adult Developmental Disorders at Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust

• Mr Ian Rogers, carer

The chat was divided loosely into the five quality statements in the guidance. It gave twitter users the opportunity to ask NICE and the topic experts what these recommendations were based up and how they might work in the real world.

It was a lively debate with some people asking whether an annual review of mental health was enough and who should be responsible for ensuring that psychological interventions (such as talking therapies) are tailored to the individual’s level of understanding.

Nearly 40 people shared their views with NICE and WeLDNurses. They posted more than 250 tweets, which mean their digital voices reached more than 3 million people.

NICE has involved patients, service users, carers and the public in its work, since the organisation was launched in 1999.

Now the popularity of social media platforms like twitter, Facebook and Snapchat is allowing us to extend this work in a more informal way and reach new audiences. We willc ontinue to explore the benefits of using digital communications in this way,and we look forward to working with WeCommunities again. 

@NiceComms & @dmarsden49