We help people with a learning disability when they come to hospital.
This might be for a planned appointment, stay in hospital or for an emergency.
We help hospital staff to provide the treatment and care that is needed for patients who have a learning disability or are Autistic. We can give hospital staff advice and offer them support.
We help by:
- Giving advice to hospital staff to support treatment
- Giving care to patients who have a learning disability
- Identifying what reasonable adjustments are needed for patients
- Supporting for patients and their families/carers
- Talking to our teams about patient care needs and discharge planning
- Educating and offering training
- Offering Easy Read and accessible health information
- Treating patients as individuals
- Offering education for staff
Learn more about what our team does by watching our People Podcast episode.
Click play on the video below:
We need to make it easy for people with a disability to use our services. This is called making reasonable adjustments. Everyone with a disability has the right to reasonable adjustments.
Reasonable adjustments can be simple changes made by one doctor or nurse. Or they can be more complex and need many teams to work together.
They are different depending on the person. Everyone has different needs.
The Health and Care Passport is a document for people with a learning disability. You bring it with you when you come to hospital.
It helps staff understand more about you.
It has information like:
- How best to talk to you
- Things you like and don’t like
- What makes you worried or upset
- What help you might need at home
When you come to hospital you should share it with staff. Remember to take it home with you when you leave. It is your document to keep.
It needs to be updated if there are any changes. This might be things like something new that makes you worried.
We use the Health and Care passport that looks like this:
Other hospitals use other passports. It doesn’t matter which one you bring. The important thing is you share it with staff.
You can download a passport by clicking this link.
It can be hard when the person you care for is in hospital. You might want to still care for them. We will help you be as involved as you want to be.
As a carer you can ask for a Carer Passport. This helps you in different ways including:
- Lets people know you are a carer
- Helps you to support the person you care for while they are in hospital
- Gives our staff information about the patient and how you support them
- Raises awareness of carers and how important they are to our patients
- Helps make sure that we help and care for our patients in the best way
You can find out more by clicking this link: Carer Passport
Autism Mind can give you advice if you are autistic and coming in to hospital.
There are different ways to contact Autism Mind:
- By telephone. Call 0191 570 0047.
- By text. Send a message to 07800 005 228.
- By email. Send an email to contact
@autismmind.com - On their website. Click here to visit the website.
Autism Mind is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
You can also use an Autism Passport. Click this link to download your Autism Passport. Fill it in and bring it to hospital with you.
The team
Hospital Liasion Team Manager
Learning Disability Nurse
Learning Disability Nurse
