Bowel cancer screening for people with learning disabilities: establishing principles for good practice

Abstract

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in England, and with 1:20 people developing bowel cancer, it is the second highest cause of cancer deaths. If diagnosed early treatment can be more effective and screening programmes can reduce these mortality figures, yet there are some people for whom access and uptake of screening programmes is significantly less than the rest of the population -namely people with intellectual disabilities. This articles aims to describe the process of co-production when working with a group of people with intellectual disabilities to explore why they may be reluctant to access bowel cancer screening programmes. Bowel cancer, its incidence and prevalence is introduced; the screening process described; and the population involved defined. The co-production process is catalogued, where clinicians, academics and people with intellectual disabilities worked together to explore the challenges of accessing screening programs. The article concludes with recommendation to inform practice.

Colorectal Cancer in People with Intellectual Disabilities

“…However, poor preparation can necessitate a second colonoscopy [40] or even general anaesthesia [65]. There is limited research on how to prepare PWIDs for colonoscopy, other than the findings of the previous study and an educational paper about bowel cancer [66]. Suggestions were to make special arrangements and reasonable adjustments [19] in conjunction with the use of guides to explain colonoscopy to PWIDs [66].…”