Quality standard

This quality standard covers the prevention, assessment and management of mental health problems in people with learning disabilities in all settings (including health, social care, education, and forensic and criminal justice). It also covers family members, carers and care workers.

It describes high-quality care in priority areas for improvement. It does not cover problem behaviours (challenging behaviour, aggressive behaviour, destructive behaviour, or self-injurious behaviour). They are covered by the NICE quality standard on learning disability: behaviour that challenges.

In this quality standard, ‘mental health problems’ are defined as mental and behavioural disorders in the ICD-10. See the NICE guideline on mental health problems in people with learning disabilities (full guideline; page 20) for more details of the mental health problems covered.

How to use NICE quality standards and how we develop them

Quality standards help you improve the quality of care you provide or commission. They apply in England and Wales (see the UK government website and Welsh government website). Decisions on how they apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland are made by ministers in the Scottish government and Northern Ireland Executive.

Find out how to use quality standards and how we develop them. We check our quality standards every August to make sure they are up to date.