BreakAway | My time | Out and about | Support Us | Treat Me Right! | John's Blog
Sarah's Blog
September 2011
Hi
everyone,
As you may know, Elsa Morris is on maternity leave so I’m now covering her post as Project Coordinator. At the moment I’m just finding my feet and getting to know everyone, and picking up from where Elsa left off but I will update you on how the projects are going on a regular basis.
Keep checked in!!
Sarah
A great new addition to our web site is “John’s blog”. Check it out!
All About Me! Hospital Passport
These simple plans have proved invaluable in
improving services for people with learning disabilities. They work well
for both patients and staff by providing information about the
adjustments hospital staff might make for a particular patient.
About
Me! Hospital Passport.
Hospital Protocols & Audit
In partnership with the hospital, we have also introduced a series of
protocols for hospital staff to follow when they are relating to someone
with a learning disability and we are continuing to improve
accessibility to printed information and signage around the hospital.
In addition to this, we have also begun auditing the quality of people's stay when they are in Ealing hospital. We check that staff have followed the information set out in the patient's passport and this is reflected in the support and care that has been given to them.
We have also introduced a discharge checklist which gives guidance to hospital staff to ensure the patient's experience when leaving the hospital is a positive one.
Patient Satisfaction Survey - Easy read
The hospital regularly carries out
satisfaction surveys with all patients. However, many patients with
learning disabilities didn’t find the formats very accessible. So we
have designed an easy read survey where patients can give feedback so we
can continue to make improvements.
Hospital staff or the PALS team can offer support to help you fill one
in if you need it.
If you have been in Ealing Hospital recently and want to give
your feedback you can download the questionnaire here and send it to
sdineen@certitude.org.uk. You don’t have to give your
personal details, but if you want a personalised response you can let us
know on the form.
Download the survey from here.
Communication and learning disability resource folders
We have put together a folder with very important information that we
hope will help staff if they aren’t sure where to get the right support
or information. This also contains the “Hospital
Communication Book Part
one and
Part two"
which has helped patients understand what is going on – it has picture
of procedures, parts of the body and much more.
Expert Trainers
John
Keaveny has had a personal experience of using Ealing Hospital services
and understands many of the issues faced by people with learning
disabilities who use health services.
John is able to use this experience to provide effective awareness training for a wide variety of health professionals that has included primary care, mental health and hospital staff and many more, the feedback has been very encouraging.
Read John's Blog.
Learning Disability Champions
To
help us keep the information flowing, we have also identified a Treat Me
Right “Champion” on every ward and department in the hospital. Each
champion is undergoing training and we hope that this will mean you
should be able to find a member of staff who knows about Treat Me Right!
if you ever find yourself a patient at Ealing Hospital. We have
bi-monthly meetings with the champions so we are kept up to date with
any issues or examples of good practice that we can share and use in
other health areas.
The West London Mental Health service has also identified champions in
different areas and they too are beginning to increase their training
and awareness.
Accessible signage
The
signs have been a success and plans are under way to increase the amount
of accessible signs throughout the hospital. We are also making a pack
that can be utilised within GP surgeries fairly easily giving people
more dignity and independence.
We have been campaigning hard for better facilities. Our calls for a
“changing places toilet” to be installed in the hospital have been
heeded and a suitable location has been identified and recent funding
has been identified for work to start 2011-2012.
Extended visiting hours
and recliners for carers
We recognise that carers know the person with a learning disability the best, which often means that they need to support the individual in order to minimise distress and provide a familiar face.
The hospital passport has a section where the involvement of carers can
be agreed so that everyone knows what to expect, it’s important to agree
this in the passport as soon as possible.
The hospital can support carers to visit outside of visiting hours and
know that carers sometimes need to stay overnight, which in the past has
meant a very uncomfortable few hours in a chair beside the bed.
After listening to the feedback of carers, we are proud to announce that
there are now 4 reclining chairs that were kindly donated by the League
of Friends. Carers can request these by asking the hospital staff to
contact the bed managers – who have access to them.
We are very grateful to the League of Friends who made this possible -
it’s a small change, but one which could make a big difference to your
hospital experience.
Easier to read information
We know that a lot of information at the hospital is not always easy for people to understand, we are building up a library of information that we hope will help more people know what to expect and to understand their rights in hospital. You can download the Hospital Welcome Pack , Say NO to Abuse! and Outpatients Information here.
Flagging system
After working for quite a while on this area we now have the ability to
flag up if someone has a learning disability on the hospital computer
system. This will then alert hospital staff to the fact that an
individual has a learning disability and may need to have reasonable
adjustments made to ensure they get equal access to health care at the
hospital.
If you would like to have your name added to the flagging system please contact me at my email address sdineen@certitude.org.uk.
Purple flower system
Ealing Hospital has a great scheme where they use a discreet purple flower to highlight the fact that an individual may need support with eating and/or drinking. This shows the catering staff that extra support from a trained member of staff is needed to provide this support. The flower is put up next to someone’s bedside and should also be on the main board of names within each ward.
If you need support with eating and drinking, ask the hospital staff to use the purple flower system.
Easier to read picture menus
The hospital has also developed an easier to read picture menu for patients who have difficulty in reading menus. These are great facilities and we want to encourage the hospital to keep up this good work.
Improving health action plans [HAP's] and GP take up of the local enhanced scheme
We
have recently completed a consultation to review Ealing’s health action
plans. These can also be used by anybody in any borough. The plans help
people to look at each aspect of their health to make sure they are
getting all the help they need.
An action plan is completed to help a person see what they need to do next. The plans are now better linked to the GP local enhanced scheme which is a yearly annual health check for adults with a learning disability.
There are 2 versions of the plan, if you need help in completing a plan please contact me or the community nurses based at CTPLD Green Lane on 0208 566 2360. If you are an organisation who wishes to use the template please get in touch. HAP with widget symbols. HAP with photo symbols. HAP easy read information.
In addition to this we are working in partnership with the community team and others to hopefully encourage more GP’s to offer annual health checks to patients with learning disabilities as this is a voluntary scheme.
Ealing LINK GP information project
We
are currently working with
Ealing Link and
Ealing Mencap to make improvements to information offered by GP
surgeries. We will be helping GP’s to create simple accessible signage
so individuals can navigate better around the surgery as well as
offering advice, templates of easier to read information about health
conditions, invitations to appointments and so on.
We have printed off further copies of the
communication folder which we want to give to every surgery in Ealing
(there are 82 in all!). We have also trained people with learning
disabilities and carers to be able to visit GP surgeries and offer
support and guidance on how they can make things more accessible.
Transition Health Action Plan pilot
We have found that many young people who are going through the transition stage from children’s services to adult services can have difficulties in getting the right kind of support to manage their health.
We have a new development where we are working closely with health professionals based in schools across Ealing who are very keen to explore the use of a Health Action Plan from childhood through to transition. We are now going to pilot in three schools, five people in each of the Year 9's and in the summer term we hope to finalise plans to roll this out across all schools in Ealing. HAP transition typeable.
If you would like to get involved in this pilot you or your carers can get in touch with me – you need to be between the ages of 14 – 19 years old and have a learning disability.
Improving Mental Health Services
Last year I was involved in a small consultation with people who had used local mental health services. We gave feedback to the West London Mental Health Trust (WLMHT). Since then we have had some funding to do some work with Mental Health Services and helping them to improve accessibility for people with learning disabilities.
So far we have developed an easy read patient manual for people who use
the John Conolly Wing in St Bernard’s Hospital, Ealing. We have also
have personalised “outpatient” information for each of the mental health
teams across the borough so that patients know what to expect and who to
go to for support if they need it. These are now finalised and are added
below for you to download.
Welcome pack WLMHT
Easy
Read Home Treatment Team
Easy Read Outpatients Early Intervention
Easy Read Outpatients Avenue House
Easy Read Outpatients Lammas Centre
Easy Read Outpatients Manor Gate
Easy Read Outpatients Southall Norwood
As previously mentioned WLMHT staff have
allocated champions and are also undergoing awareness and Makaton
training in partnership with Treat Me Right! and Ealing Hospital.
Very positive stuff!
Here to help
If you or one of your friends or family has a learning disability and will be visiting Ealing Hospital in the next few months Treat Me Right! may be able to help - perhaps with an About Me! Hospital Passport or with some general advice. Or if you want more information on Health Action Plans, Health Checks or anything else, you can contact me by email sdineen@certitude.org.uk.
If you are in the hospital you can call the PALS team Mon – Fri 9.30 – 4pm on 0800 064 1120 or you can visit their office near main Reception.