Over-medication of Individuals Who Demonstrate Challenging Behaviors

I can see from the data and findings I have gathered that the issue is far more serious and prevalent than I ever imagined. When the data is transferred into a graph format, it allows for a more visual analysis and you can see just how many people are affected by wrongful medication / medical interventions.

It is clear that the negative side effects are significant and that these differ from the effects that have been recorded from studies on the general population. Also, we can see that both anti-psychotics and anti-depressants are being used within the learning disability community without the appropriate assessment, leading to widespread health and wellness issues that are completely avoidable.

I can clearly see that, throughout all of history, learning disability and challenging behavior has been misunderstood and mismanaged, often being seen as an inconvenience and a blight on society that needs to be subdued or 'fixed' as quickly as possible. It is unfortunate and unsettling to see that in this current era of education, knowledge, experience and research possibilities, we see our health services still failing our learning disabled community and opting for medication and sedation rather than addressing the underlying causes and supporting people to improve their quality of life in a healthy way. This may be due to lack of education regarding learning disabilities being given to GPs who prescribe the medication, parents / carers who seek advice from professionals etc. It also may be due to lack of finances or resources meaning that behavioral support cannot be sustained for the learning disabled population.

I am disappointed to find that my initial literature review has been absolutely substantiated by my new findings through this research project. Health professionals have every right to be deeply concerned by the prevalence of over-medicating individuals who demonstrate challenging behaviors. The hypothesis I made at the start (based on my own experiences of caring for people taking medication to manage behaviors) has been proven correct and my research has confirmed that often medication is used as a primary intervention rather than as a last resort, as it should be.

I would recommend that alternative treatments, therapies and interventions are taught to carers as a standard matter of course to ensure that unnecessary medication is avoided wherever possible. Also, annual medication reviews should be carried out without fail to ensure that if possible, medication can be reduced or ended where it's not needed. I would recommend that ABC charts and the subsequent data analysis techniques be used at all times within care settings to ensure that information is recorded appropriately regarding challenging behaviors. I feel that it's important to give more funding and resources to programs like Positive Behavioral Support who are changing lives and addressing the underlying problems that would otherwise be masked by medication.

The research I have gathered here has numerous practical and theoretical applications within my practice. As a service, we are privy to medical information about each service user and we are required to put these details into our own system and document possible side effects etc. At this point, it may be prudent to make contact with home carers and ask some questions about why this was prescribed and ask for some more information to help us understand this process and form our own response to this.

We should ensure that annual medication reviews take place and that the results of these are communicated to us as a part of their care team so that we remain involved and are able to share our thoughts and experiences. We should be prepared at any time to pass on concerns to the safeguarding team about potential wrongful or over-medication of clients as this could have significant long-term impact on their health and wellness. We should also be conscious of the increased vulnerability of our clients who take psychotropic drugs.