Children and young people across North East and Cumbria have been invited to enter a poster competition to win vouchers worth £200.
Anyone aged 25 and under can enter the competition, which asks participants to design a poster on the STOMP initiative, which stands for ‘stopping over medication of people with a learning disability, autism or both.’
The overall winner and two runners-up will have their posters used to promote the STOMP initiative, as well as winning vouchers.
The competition is running until Friday June 22 and entries can be sent by emailing england.cne-transformingcare@nhs.net or posting to NHS England, Transforming Care, Waterfront 4, Goldcrest Way, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE15 8NY.
STOMP campaigns to stop the over-use of psychotropic medication to manage people’s behaviour after the issue came to light following research by Public Health England. This found that up to 35,000 adults with a learning disability are being prescribed an antipsychotic, an antidepressant or both without appropriate clinical justification.
This is medication which results in alterations to perception, mood or consciousness. Long-term use of these medicines puts people at unnecessary risk of a wide range of side effects including weight gain, organ failure and even premature death.
For more information on STOMP, visit https://www.england.nhs.uk/learning-disabilities/stomp/