STOMP is about helping people to stay well and have a good quality of life. Psychotropic medicines affect how the brain works and include medicines for psychosis, depression, anxiety, sleep problems and epilepsy. Sometimes they are also given to people because their behaviour is seen as challenging.

People with a learning disability and autistic people are more likely to be given these medicines than other people. These medicines are right for some people. They can help people stay safe and well.
Sometimes there are other ways of helping people so they need less medicine or none at all. It is not safe to change the dose of these medicines or stop taking them without help from a doctor.

New e-learning for carers, family and professionals

To ensure people with a learning disability and autistic people are not taking psychotropic medicines when they do not need to, a collection of new, co-produced learning sessions about the over-medication of people with a learning disability and autistic people (STOMP) has been added to the MindEd mental health e-earning programme.

Developed by Health Education England in collaboration and partnership with Experts by Experience, MindEd and NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Learning Disability and Autism STOMP team, it features five knowledge-based e-learning sessions and one skill-building case study. The sessions cover the learner groups and  topics:

For everyone, including carers and family members

• Psychotropic Medication 1
• Inappropriate Prescribing

For health and care professionals

• Inappropriate Prescribing
• How to Challenge Inappropriate Medication 1
• How to Challenge Inappropriate Medication 2
• Psychotropic Medication 3

For specialist learning disability and autism professionals including psychiatrists, psychologists, GPs, pharmacists, and mental health and learning disability nurses

• Psychotropic Medication 2

The sessions explain the meaning of STOMP and discuss opportunities for learners to speak up if they feel someone in their care is receiving inappropriate medication. Learners will understand how to access reliable information about medicines. Each session takes approximately 30 minutes to complete and can be completed at the learner’s own pace.

For more information and to access the sessions, visit the MindEd programme webpage.