Health · England
People who can help with your health
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This guide is for people in England.
Different workers help with different things.
Start with what matters to you
Tell people what matters to you.
You can ask for help with something difficult.
Your GP can check health problems.
They can help you find another service.
A learning disability nurse can help with health needs.
They may help you prepare for appointments.
Food, communication and movement
A dietitian helps with food, drinks and nutrition.
Nutrition means getting what your body needs from food.
A speech and language therapist helps with communication.
They can also help with swallowing.
An occupational therapist helps with everyday activities.
This might include cooking, dressing or a favourite hobby.
A physiotherapist helps with movement and comfort.
They can help with sitting and changing position.
Feelings and mental health
A clinical psychologist helps with thoughts, feelings and distress.
They can help people find better ways to support you.
A psychiatrist is a mental health doctor.
They can discuss treatments and medicines with you.
An art therapist helps people explore feelings through art.
You do not need to be good at art.
Other health care and referrals
Other people help with teeth, hearing, eyes and feet.
A pharmacist can explain your medicines.
Ask your GP or health team about a referral.
A referral asks another service to help you.
Agree and review your support
Ask for information you understand.
Ask for someone you trust to join you.
Ask who will do each part of your plan.
Ask who to contact if you need more help.
Ask when your plan will be checked.
You can use the worksheet to write things down.
What you can do next
Please help me find the right service.
Please explain who will help and what happens next.
Check a professional’s registration Web pageThis link opens another website.
It may use harder words.
More useful links
- HCPC: check the register Web page
Check registration for the professions regulated by the HCPC.
- British Association of Art Therapists: what is art therapy? Web page
Art therapy is psychotherapy with a trained art therapist; artistic skill is not required.
- Royal College of Psychiatrists: frequently asked questions Web page
Usual GP referral route to psychiatry and initial assessment by a wider mental health team.
- NICE NG54: mental health problems in people with learning disabilities Web page
Person-centred assessment, physical health review, adapted interventions, defined responsibilities and coordinated care.
These links open other websites.
They may use harder words.
Who can help with your health and support?
Understand professional roles, ask for a referral and help your team work together.
Children and adults · England · Local services and referral rules vary
Start with the help you need
You do not have to know a professional’s job title before asking for help. Explain what has changed, what is difficult, what already helps and what you want to do. Your GP can assess symptoms and discuss referrals. Community learning disability health teams offer specialist support, but do not replace ordinary NHS services. Their membership, age limits and eligibility differ. Some include social care; others work alongside a separate council team. A multidisciplinary team, or MDT, brings together people with different professional skills.
Community learning disability nurses
These nurses help people access healthcare and understand their health needs. Their work may include specialist nursing assessment, preparing for appointments, health action plans, reasonable adjustments and training supporters. They can help explain someone’s usual communication and signs of distress to other services. This does not mean a nurse will attend every appointment or provide daily personal care. Ask what your local team can offer. Hospital learning disability liaison has a different role, explained in our separate guide.
Dietitians: nutrition and food
A dietitian assesses whether food and drink meet the person’s nutritional needs. They may help with poor intake, growth, weight changes, restricted diets, health conditions, nutritional supplements or tube feeding. The plan should consider preferences, sensory needs, available support and enjoyment. For swallowing difficulties, dietitians work with speech and language therapists. A dietitian is not simply someone who tells people to lose weight. See our dietitian guide for preparation and referral information.
Speech and language therapists: communication and swallowing
Speech and language therapists help with understanding and expressing information, including communication without speech. Support can involve communication aids, changes to the environment and training the people who communicate with you. They also assess and support eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties within their competence. Communication and swallowing may involve different clinicians or services. Ask which needs your referral covers.
Occupational therapists: everyday activities
Occupational therapists, often called OTs, help people take part in activities that matter to them. This can include cooking, dressing, learning, work, hobbies, relationships and managing daily routines. They may assess the activity, environment, equipment and sensory demands together. Some work in learning disability or mental health teams; others assess home adaptations through social care. One OT service may not provide every kind of assessment.
Physiotherapists: movement, comfort and posture
Physiotherapists assess movement, mobility, pain, balance and physical function. Goals can include comfortable sitting, moving between positions, joining an activity or maintaining abilities. Some people need coordinated postural care across the day and night. Physiotherapists may work with OTs, wheelchair services and orthotists. Ask for an individual programme, practical training and a review plan. Exercises or equipment that help one person may not suit another.
Clinical psychologists: understanding distress and finding helpful support
Clinical psychologists assess psychological difficulties and work with people to understand what contributes to them. This shared explanation is sometimes called a formulation. They may offer adapted therapy for anxiety, low mood or trauma, and help families or staff change unhelpful support. Some assess learning disability or changes in thinking and everyday abilities. The aim should be wellbeing and a better life, with goals agreed with the person. Ask how sessions will suit your communication. Clinical psychologists do not normally prescribe medicines.
Psychiatrists: mental health doctors
A psychiatrist is a medical doctor specialising in mental health. They can assess and diagnose mental illness, consider psychological treatment and prescribe or review medicines. A learning disability psychiatrist has expertise in mental health needs alongside learning disability. Referral is usually through a GP or an existing health team. Seeing a psychiatrist does not automatically mean hospital admission or medication. Ask what each proposed treatment is for, its alternatives, possible side effects and review arrangements.
Mental health nurses and approved mental health professionals
Mental health nurses can help assess mental health needs, plan care and support recovery in the community or hospital. An approved mental health professional, or AMHP, is a specially trained professional with a legal role in Mental Health Act assessments and applications for compulsory admission. AMHPs can come from several professions; they are not the same as independent mental health advocates. Ask anyone involved to explain their role and your rights.
Epilepsy specialist nurses and neurologists
A neurologist is a doctor specialising in the nervous system. Epilepsy specialist nurses can help with information, care planning and living with seizures, working with the medical team. Ask about an individual seizure plan, medicines review, training for supporters and whom to contact if seizures change. Children may receive care from a paediatrician or paediatric neurologist. Adult arrangements differ, so ask who leads epilepsy care and how it connects with the learning disability team.
Art therapists, music therapists and dramatherapists
Art therapy is psychotherapy that uses art-making to explore experiences and feelings. You do not need to be good at art. Music therapy and dramatherapy use different creative approaches. These are clinical therapies, distinct from an enjoyable art, music or drama group. Ask how the approach could help your own goals and how progress will be reviewed. Benefits differ between people; no therapy should be presented as a cure for learning disability. Availability varies, and not every learning disability team offers arts therapies.
Counsellors and other therapists
Counselling and psychotherapy may help with feelings, relationships or difficult experiences. Ask about the practitioner’s training, professional registration, experience with learning disability and accessible ways of working. The words therapist, counsellor and psychologist alone do not tell you someone’s regulated profession. A suitably adapted service matters more than assuming that one therapy suits everyone.
GPs, specialist doctors and pharmacists
The GP helps assess new physical or mental health concerns, review long-term conditions and arrange referrals. Depending on need, other doctors may include a paediatrician for children or a neurologist for nervous-system conditions such as epilepsy. A pharmacist can explain medicines, interactions, side effects and practical difficulties taking them. Ask for a medicines review if treatment is not helping or causes problems. Do not crush tablets or change prescribed medicines without appropriate professional advice.
Teeth, hearing, eyesight and feet
Dentists assess teeth and mouth health; ask about special care dentistry if ordinary dental care cannot meet your needs with adjustments. Audiology assesses hearing and supports hearing-aid use. Optometrists check eyesight and eye health. Podiatrists assess and treat foot problems. Orthotists assess and fit supports such as braces, splints or specialist footwear. These services may be separate from the learning disability team. Changes in hearing, vision, dental pain or discomfort should not be dismissed as part of learning disability.
Social workers and the wider support team
Social workers may help assess care and support needs, plan support and address safeguarding concerns. They are not the same as a support worker who helps with everyday life. Nurses, therapists, assistants, advocates and peer supporters can all contribute different expertise. Ask each person what they are responsible for and who supervises delegated clinical work. Health assessment and council care assessment can be needed together; one does not automatically replace the other.
How to request a referral
Contact your GP, current clinician or local learning disability team. Describe the specific difficulty and its effect on daily life. Include recent changes, relevant health conditions, what support has been tried and adjustments needed. Ask whether you can refer yourself, whether a professional must refer and which team covers your age and area. Ask who will confirm receipt, how urgency is assessed and whom to contact while waiting. A referral is a request for assessment; it is not a guarantee of a particular treatment.
Your choices and accessible appointments
Ask staff to talk directly to you and use your preferred communication. You can request Easy Read information, more time, a quieter setting and someone you trust. Explain how you show agreement, refusal, pain or uncertainty. Ask about benefits, risks and alternatives before agreeing to treatment. A learning disability or lack of speech does not by itself mean someone cannot decide. If capacity is in question, it must relate to the particular decision, with support to understand and communicate.
Make the team work together
When several professionals are involved, ask for a named contact and a shared plan. Agree your goals, who will do each action, when it will happen and when it will be reviewed. Ask for explanations if recommendations conflict. Discuss what information will be shared, with whom and why. Family and supporters can provide valuable information; their involvement should respect the person’s wishes, confidentiality and the relevant legal rules. Ask how plans will transfer between children’s and adults’ services or after a move.
Check professional registration
The Health and Care Professions Council, called HCPC, regulates professions including dietitians, speech and language therapists, OTs, physiotherapists, arts therapists and clinical psychologists. Their protected professional titles require registration. Psychologist alone is not a protected title. Doctors, nurses, social workers and pharmacists have different regulators. Ask for the person’s exact professional title and registration details if you are unsure. Registration is separate from membership of a professional association.
If a referral is refused or the wait is difficult
Ask for the reason in an accessible form, the applicable criteria and the service that can meet the need instead. Explain any missing information or adjustments that were overlooked. Ask your referrer to review the decision if appropriate. The service’s patient advice team or complaints process can help with unresolved access problems. A specialist waiting list is not the route for urgent deterioration: contact your GP, NHS 111 or emergency services as appropriate. See our urgent health guide.
Use the team and appointment worksheet
The worksheet below is an original planning aid. It is not a clinical assessment or an official NHS form. Use it to record names, agreed actions and questions. You can complete it with someone you trust. Keep personal health information somewhere safe and share only what is relevant.
Words you could use
“Please explain which professionals can help with my needs. I would like an accessible assessment, a named contact and a clear plan showing who will do what.”
More useful links
- HCPC: check the register Web page
Check registration for the professions regulated by the HCPC.
- British Association of Art Therapists: what is art therapy? Web page
Art therapy is psychotherapy with a trained art therapist; artistic skill is not required.
- Royal College of Psychiatrists: frequently asked questions Web page
Usual GP referral route to psychiatry and initial assessment by a wider mental health team.
- NICE NG54: mental health problems in people with learning disabilities Web page
Person-centred assessment, physical health review, adapted interventions, defined responsibilities and coordinated care.
These links open other websites.
They may use harder words.
Where the information comes from
Links checked 1 November 2026.
These links open other websites.
They may use harder words.
- Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS: community learning disability teams Web page
An England example of different professional roles, referral criteria and specialist service limits. Local arrangements differ.
- West London NHS: adult learning disability health team Web page
Another NHS example: team membership and the needs accepted by each profession vary.
- NHS England: allied health professions in learning disability Web page
Roles of speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, dietetics, podiatry and arts therapies.
- Central London Community Healthcare NHS: learning disability nursing Web page
Specialist nursing assessments, health access, preparation, adjustments and training.
- NHS England: clinical and counselling psychology in learning disability Web page
Adapted psychological therapies, assessment, work with families and staff, and multidisciplinary practice.
- Royal College of Psychiatrists: mental health and psychiatry questions Web page
Psychiatrists are medical doctors; their role includes diagnosis, psychological treatments and prescribing.
- Royal College of Psychiatrists: frequently asked questions Web page
Usual GP referral route to psychiatry and initial assessment by a wider mental health team.
- British Association of Art Therapists: what is art therapy? Web page
Art therapy is psychotherapy with a trained art therapist; artistic skill is not required.
- HCPC: professions and protected titles Web page
Protected titles include dietitian, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, art therapist and clinical psychologist.
- HCPC: understanding the regulation of psychologists Web page
Psychologist alone is not a protected title; clinical psychologist and other listed practitioner titles are protected.
- NICE NG54: mental health problems in people with learning disabilities Web page
Person-centred assessment, physical health review, adapted interventions, defined responsibilities and coordinated care.
- Public Health England: pharmacy and learning disabilities Web page
Accessible medicine advice, coordination, interactions, medication review and safe ways to take medicines.
- NHS England: STOMP and STAMP Web page
Person-centred reviews of psychotropic medicines, their benefits and adverse effects.
- Guy's and St Thomas' NHS: learning disability audiology Web page
Specialist hearing assessment and hearing-aid support when mainstream services cannot meet needs with adjustments.
- NHS England: eye care and learning disability Web page
Access to eye tests and support with eye care.
- Guy's and St Thomas' NHS: orthotics Web page
Individual assessment and fitting of braces and specialist footwear.
- NHS: getting a care needs assessment Web page
Council assessment, including assessment by social workers or occupational therapists.
- Government: learning disability — applying All Our Health Web page
Direct communication, plain language, visual support and recognition of health inequalities.
- NICE: epilepsy specialist nurses Web page
Specialist nursing advice, epilepsy care planning and accessible support.
- NHS England: epilepsy care and transition teams Web page
Roles of paediatricians, neurologists, epilepsy nurses and learning disability clinicians.
- South London and Maudsley NHS: mental health staff Web page
Different professional roles in mental healthcare.
- East London NHS: approved mental health professionals Web page
AMHPs have additional training and statutory Mental Health Act responsibilities.
- NHS: Mental Capacity Act Web pageFuller information
Support for specific decisions and communication; disability does not itself establish lack of capacity.
- UCLH NHS: special care dentistry Web page
An example of a specialist dental service with defined referral and complexity criteria.
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Someone you trust can help you.