Support with daily living activities like going to the toilet, washing or sleeping

Part of: The Community Learning Disability Nursing Service

Activities of daily living are things you do every day. Activities of daily living include:

A man using pictures to communicate
Communicating with people
A woman using an inhaler
Breathing
Two people eating at a table
Eating and drinking
A man sitting on a toilet
Going to the toilet, or managing accidents with wee or poo (incontinence)
A man brushing his teeth

Washing, brushing your hair, brushing your teeth and getting dressed
A man helping another to walk

Getting out and about
Two people playing skittles

Working and playing
A person waking up

Sleeping
A nurse giving an assessment

Nurses can undertake a full nursing assessment. We will try to understand what you can do well, and why you may have problems in any of these activities of daily living.
A woman thinking
We might suggest to you how to make these activities easier for you. We will talk about what other help you may need.
A woman getting help from a nurse
You may not be able to do some of these things, because you have a physical health problem. Nurses can support you to ask or get help from your GP. We can refer you to speech and language therapy if you have certain problems with talking or with swallowing.
A woman holder her hands to her head

We can refer to you to psychiatry, to review your mental health and your medication, if you are not able to do these things because of your mental health
A group of people playing instruments
We can also, If you agree, we can refer to you an occupational therapist. They can help you to learn new skills, or can help if you need to do new activities.