Living healthily with Down’s Syndrome

With every pregnancy, there’s a slight chance of having a baby who has Down’s syndrome. Some people are more likely to have a child with Down’s than others. The main thing that increases the chance of having a baby with Down’s syndrome is the mother’s age.  For example, a woman who is:

• 45 years old has a 1 in 50 or greater chance
• 40 years old has a 1 in 100 chance
• 35 years old has 1 in 270 chance
• 30 years old has a 1 in 800 chance
• 20 years old has a 1 in 1,500 chance

However, babies with Down’s syndrome are born to women of all ages. The chance of having a child with Down’s syndrome is also increased if there was a previous occurrence of having a child with Down’s syndrome.

For most people, this chance is still small (around 1 in 100).

There’s around a 1 in 2 chance of a child having Down’s syndrome if one of his or her parents has the condition.

There are several types of Down’s Syndrome

• Mosaic Down syndrome: This type relates to about 2% of the people with Down syndrome. For children with mosaic Down syndrome, some of their cells have 3 copies of chromosome 21, but other cells have the typical two copies of chromosome 21. Children with mosaic Down syndrome may have the same features as other children with Down syndrome. However, they may have fewer features of the condition due to the presence of some (or many) cells with a typical number of chromosomes.
• Translocation Down syndrome: This type accounts for a small percentage of people with Down syndrome (about 3%). This occurs when an extra part or a whole extra chromosome 21 is present, but it is attached or “trans-located” to a different chromosome rather than being a separate chromosome 21.
• Trisomy 21: About 95% of people with Down syndrome have Trisomy 21. With this type of Down syndrome, each cell in the body has 3 separate copies of chromosome 21 instead of the usual 2 copies.

The key physical features of Down syndrome include:

• A flattened face, especially the bridge of the nose
• Almond-shaped eyes that slant up
• A short neck
• Small ears
• A tongue that tends to stick out of the mouth
• Tiny white spots on the iris (colored part) of the eye
• Small hands and feet
• A single line across the palm of the hand (palmar crease)
• Small pinky fingers that sometimes curve toward the thumb
• Poor muscle tone or loose joints
• Shorter in height as children and adults

Our dedicated are available to help you make a choice that will help you and your loved one to manage the various complex issues associate with having Down’s Syndrome. Get in touch with our dedicated and friendly team and one of our handpicked member of staff will be happy to talk you through the various options.

Verity Healthcare have set up a team of care workers who are supported by experienced nurses to support all individuals with Down’s Syndrome. We’re able to provide highest quality clinical and personal care to enable our clients to have choice and live their lives as they choose.

We’re working with man children and younger teenagers too and we’re focus on adopting innovative ways of supporting the young people and their families in their primary carer role, by facilitating family life for every member of the family. For older clients, we support them to be as independent as possible including assisting them to be adventurous and taking on paid or voluntary work.

We believe there’d be no one size fits all approach to Down’s syndrome care.  That’s why we take a holistic approach to care to ensure we have a full understanding of clinical and personal care of each clients’ individual needs.

Prior supporting each client, we conduct needs and risk assessment to understand the needs and the associated risk to be managed or eliminated when providing care.  Having gathered the range of information, we design a plan that reflects the

client’s hobbies, goals, and aspirations for the future. We implement risk management plan to ensure that the clients are cared for safely.

We’ll then take time to match the clients with the right personal care assistants who share personality, interests and hobbies to promote better relationship when providing their day-to-day care.  We also know that conditions can change over time and so undertake regular monitoring and review to make sure that we’re always delivering the most appropriate and cost-effective support to all of our clients.

By choosing Verity Healthcare, you’re choosing a company that is genuinely focused on supporting you as personal to achieve better personal, health, medical and social care outcomes. In addition, you’ll be receiving services from carers and registered nurses who have received award-winning training and renowned and committed at what they do.

We also work in close partnership with specialists and healthcare professionals, including GPs, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists to ensure that you and/or your loved one receives care and support that is well-suited to your needs.

If you require high quality and first-rate Down’s Syndrome care at home, contact our dedicated team today to discuss the various options available.

Down syndrome is a lifelong condition with not treatment. However, receiving services early in life will often help babies and children with Down syndrome to improve their physical and intellectual abilities. These services include speech, occupational, and physical therapy, and they are typically offered through early intervention programs in each state. Children with Down syndrome may also need extra help or attention in school, although many children are included in regular classes.

Our specialist team of care workers and registered nurses are exceptionally trained to offer extraordinary support so you can manage essential day-to-day activities very well.  We can support you with short-term care where our care staff will visit you for period of 30mins or more or as live-in carers where they will provide round-the-clock services. Our Down’s Syndrome care team will support you with:

• Personal care including skin care, washing, dressing and toileting to keep high levels of hygiene to prevent infection
• Nutrition management such as food preparation, access to appropriate drinks to keep you healthy and hydrated
• Companionship which will include going to the theatre, watching movies, out for dinner, chatting through photo albums, engage in social activities, keeping up hobbies to keep you motivated and keep up with events and routines
• Housekeeping including household chores such as cooking, cleaning, shopping and laundry to keep home environment clean and prevent infection
• Life skills development – supporting with learning new skills, education and work aspirations
• Language development – help with any needed language development e.g. sign language
• Medicine management – assistance with taking the right medicines as prescribed to improve health and wellbeing
• Encouragement to relearn skills and do things for yourself to maintain your independence
• Medical support, such as arranging medical and hospital appointments, dressing wounds and supporting with bowel, stoma and catheter care
• Running errands such as collecting prescriptions or helping with the food shopping

Call us on 0203 643 5295 to discuss your needs or email us . You can request a callback and we’ll return your call.