Meeting the needs of our diverse
We are committed to commissioning services that offer equitable access to care, decision making, and patient outcomes. We aim to meet the needs of all patients, regardless of age, race, gender, orientation, disability and/or how they show their health concerns.
We are confident our services and teams broadly align with these values. As patient presentation and clinical best practice in this area constantly evolve, responding to the needs of our diverse patient groups will remain a priority. Below we outline how our neurodiverse workstream is working on this priority now, and explain the plans for the future.
What is happening now?
Over the past five years, while the number of individuals in our secure services who have a primary diagnosis of learning disability has reduced, there has been an increase in autistic people accessing our services. Both groups tend to have longer hospital stays, and their environments and treatment plans are not always adapted to their needs.
The Neurodiverse workstream is committed to improving health outcomes for these individuals in our low and medium secure wards. We are working to ensure that we have the right number of beds, environments, knowledge, and skills across both mainstream and specialist wards, tailored to each person’s needs.
What will come next?
Following the review and evaluation of how things are currently done, we will listen to and use feedback from patients and staff, plus look at how things are working well in other places. This will include a focus on staff training, creating peer support networks and making environmental changes so they are more comfortable for people with sensory needs.
The goal is to ensure that everyone receives care that suits their individual needs and helps them feel safe and supported. This will enable us to agree on a model of care to be rolled out across the collaborative.
In the longer term
In the future, we will develop mainstream wards, north and south of the region. These will have environmental adaptions enabling support for patients with high level sensory needs, which may include patients with dementia, ADHD etc.
Aligning with the principles of Assuring Transformation we will continue to proactively review our current Learning Disability capacity.
For patients who do not need an adapted service, or their main need is their mental health, we will further develop staff skills and confidence to help them ensure patients can get the right care, at the right time.