Recent reporting by the BBC has highlighted a stark and unacceptable reality: more than half of adults with learning disabilities do not live beyond the age of 65. The findings shine a spotlight on the significant health inequalities faced by people with learning disabilities and the urgent need for action across the health and care system.
However, for people from Black, South Asian and other minority ethnic communities, the picture is even more concerning.
The NHS Race and Health Observatory’s landmark review, We Deserve Better: Ethnic Minorities with a Learning Disability and Access to Healthcare, found that people with learning disabilities from ethnically diverse backgrounds face additional barriers and poorer outcomes because of the combined impact of disability and ethnicity.
The review identified a shocking disparity in life expectancy, reporting an average age of death of just 34 years for people from minority ethnic communities with a learning disability, compared with around 62 years for White people with a learning disability. These findings highlight the devastating consequences of multiple forms of disadvantage operating at the same time.
Barriers That Cannot Be Ignored
The review found that many people encounter obstacles when trying to access healthcare, including:
- Poor communication and limited accessible information
- Lack of reasonable adjustments within healthcare settings
- Inadequate interpretation and translation services
- Cultural insensitivity and a lack of culturally competent care
- Inconsistent recording of ethnicity data
- Experiences of discrimination and exclusion
These barriers can make it harder for people to access preventive care, receive timely diagnoses, attend appointments, and have their health concerns taken seriously.
For families and carers, these challenges often mean having to repeatedly advocate for appropriate support and adjustments, creating additional stress and frustration.
Inequalities Are Not Inevitable
The NHS Race and Health Observatory review is clear that these inequalities are avoidable.
It calls for action to improve the collection and use of ethnicity data, increase access to annual health checks, strengthen cultural competence across health services, and ensure that people with learning disabilities and their communities are actively involved in designing services.
Most importantly, the report emphasises the need for healthcare systems to recognise and respond to the additional barriers faced by people from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Looking Beyond Single-Issue Approaches
A key lesson from the review is that health inequalities do not exist in isolation.
For many people, learning disability intersects with ethnicity, poverty, language barriers, social exclusion, housing issues and wider social determinants of health. When these factors combine, the risk of poor health outcomes increases significantly.
If the NHS is serious about reducing inequalities, services must be designed with these overlapping experiences at their heart rather than treating them as an afterthought. This means listening to communities, understanding lived experiences, and ensuring that healthcare is accessible, equitable and culturally responsive for everyone.
A Call for Change
The BBC story serves as an important reminder that people with learning disabilities continue to experience unacceptable health inequalities. The evidence from the NHS Race and Health Observatory demonstrates that for many people from ethnically diverse communities, those inequalities are even deeper and more severe.
Every person deserves access to safe, effective and compassionate healthcare, regardless of their disability, ethnicity or background. Addressing these inequalities is not simply a matter of improving services. It is a matter of fairness, dignity and human rights.
Further reading: BBC News, Over half of adults with learning difficulties do not live past 65, report says and the NHS Race and Health Observatory review, We Deserve Better: Ethnic Minorities with a Learning Disability and Access to Healthcare.