A special calendar has been created to encourage healthy eating among people who have learning disabilities.

The Adult Learning Disability Service’s physiotherapy department runs weekly exercise classes called CIRC8 around Lanarkshire and the Nutrition Matters calendar was developed by the service’s dietetic department.

Specialist dietitian Gemma McGowan said: “We felt it would be useful for class participants to have reading material they could take home and hopefully display in a prominent place as a reminder of the healthy eating messages they hear in the monthly CIRC8 dietetic sessions.

“I worked closely with Aileen Longva from the speech therapy service to pull together key phrases and information to put in the calendar and it took shape thanks to funding from Lanarkshire Recovery Network.

“Within our client group, it’s crucial to reduce the barriers to accessing good health information as, within the service, we’re witnessing a higher rate of metabolic syndrome – a combination of diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

“There is a significant link between this syndrome and patients who take medication commonly prescribed to those who have learning disabilities. The risk of metabolic syndrome is higher in patients who have poor dietary habits and lifestyle.”