What is STOMP-STAMP?
STOMP-STAMP was introduced by NHS England in 2018 and is a commitment within the NHS Long Term Plan.
- STOMP stands for Stopping the over medication of people with a learning disability, autism or both
- STAMP stands for Supporting treatment and appropriate medication in paediatrics (referring to children and young people)
Background to the campaign
The NHS website states that ‘People with a learning disability are thought to be 16 times more likely and autistic people 7 times more likely to be prescribed an antipsychotic than the general population.
‘People should only be given psychotropic medication for the right reasons, in the lowest dose, for the shortest time.
‘STOMP and STAMP are not anti-medication. Instead, we want to help people stay well and have a good quality of life through the right use, review and optimisation of medication. This means thinking about alternative forms of support and treatment before prescribing medication, and having clearly defined circumstances in which the use of psychotropic medication is appropriate.
STOMP and STAMP are the responsibility of all professionals in primary care, secondary care, educational settings and social care. They promote information sharing and collaboration across sectors to minimise all forms of inappropriate prescribing.’
Many organisations have been involved in promoting the STOMP-STAMP initiative through a national pledge, led by the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG).
Is the campaign effective?
Research undertaken in 2022-23* aimed to gauge awareness and understanding of STOMP-STAMP among health and social care workers; explore barriers and challenges to embedding them as normal practice; and identify opportunities and solutions to improve awareness.
The findings of the research recently published in a report – ‘STOMP STAMP: The essential role of the health and care workforce in reducing the reliance on psychotropic medication’ – indicate there is some way to go.
Topline findings from the report are that:
- To date, information about STOMP-STAMP has not reached those who need it.
- There are many misconceptions in the health and social care workforce about STOMP-STAMP
- Many of the non-prescribing health professionals, social professionals and family carers didn’t know that STOMP-STAMP applied to them or that they could use it.
- Where training about STOMP-STAMP had been undertaken, professionals reported having the skills, knowledge, and confidence to use STOMP-STAMP in their roles.
- There is a need for a designated role within the health and social care workforce, which includes Learning Disability Nurses, to Champion STOMP-STAMP, advocate for individual needs and act as conduit between them, prescribing and non-prescribing professionals.
Our approach
At Achieve together, we are committed to training our support teams about STOMP-STAMP and ensuring they understand the important role they can play to minimise inappropriate prescribing. We use this in conjunction with our leading edge positive behaviour support (PBS) and PASS+PORTTM training.
STOMP training continues to be included in many training initiatives. At our Medication Matters conference for Home Managers, led by the Health & Wellbeing Team, the PBS Team focused on STOMP-STAMP including monitoring and reducing psychotropic use to manage behaviours which challenge. Insightful lived experience accounts from members of Unity and a family member reinforced the learning.
At Managers’ Conferences, Unity members have given regular presentations on the subject.
As part of our PBS approach we have undertaken an audit to ensure psychotropic medication for each person is in line with STOMP-STAMP guidelines. This is in addition to regularly reviewing restrictive practices with an ongoing emphasis on the minimisation of psychotropic prescriptions, in consultation with people supported, prescribers and families.
Next steps
The recent report will be discussed by our Quality Board and the learnings from it considered. For example, how we can make sure people we support and their families are more aware of what STOMP-STAMP is, why it is important. We will also look further at what more we can do in collaboration with local prescribers to ensure we are all committed to STOMP-STAMP and that people have effective medication reviews as part of their Health Action Plans.
*The research project was a collaborative effort between the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi), VODG, Learning Disability England (LDE) and Skills for Care. Health Education England funded the project.
You can read the summary report on the NDTi website.
An easy read version of the report is on the NDTi website.
