#WeSupportSTOMP – One Year On for Social Care
A commitment to the STOMP (STopping Over-Medication of People with a learning disability, autism or both) campaign has been steadily building in social care. One year on since VODG took the lead in promoting STOMP in the sector:
- Over 160 social care providers, supporting over 52,000 people, have pledged support for STOMP
- 33 providers, supporting over 26,000 people, are delivering on a STOMP action plan.
To support this, VODG has published a set of tools to equip providers to implement their commitment to STOMP, including the STOMP pledge for social care and Preparing to visit a doctor. We have also hosted a STOMP conference, launched STOMP News and discussed the importance of STOMP with over 1,100 sector leaders.
Providers who have been early adopters of STOMP have recently been reviewing their progress. They are reporting increased staff confidence in raising medication issues with health professionals and there is a small but growing body of case studies of people who have successfully reduced or stopped their psychotropic medication.
A wider, more academic review of progress will be taking place this year. In 2015 a study by Public Health England found that between 30,000-35,000 people with a learning disability were taking psychotropic medication without a clinical justification. This study will be repeated this year to measure the overall impact of the STOMP campaign. While we hope this will identify areas of progress, inevitably there is much more to be done. 2018/19 is the final year of the STOMP campaign and we will be focussing on how to support providers to embed their commitment to tackling over-medication in practice on a long-term basis. Providers are invited to contribute their learning and resources by offering case studies, tools and training materials to stomp@vodg.org.uk
