We launched our Learning Disability and Autism strategy this week, a five-year vision to shape and improve how we care for patients with learning disabilities (LD).

It aims to reduce health inequalities faced by people with LD, and was created in consultation with those it is there to help, including Danny French (pictured above), one of our LD patients.

Danny, of Romford, is not only our patient, for the last four years he has been employed as a bank worker, working closely with our LD and Autism team. Before that, he’d volunteered with us for eight years.

Danny, 35, sits on our LD and Autism Working Group, which was responsible for putting together our easy-read strategy, with input from external experts.

He said: “It was an absolute honour for me to be part of this. Having been involved from the start, I found myself quite tearful at the launch event.

“I hope it will go some way to show the LD community that they can put their trust and faith in the hospitals, and be secure in the knowledge that adjustments will be made when they need to go to hospital.”

Danny’s own experience was key in what he could bring to the creation of the strategy, which was launched via a virtual event on Tuesday (22 June).

He added: “LD people are very vulnerable when they come to hospital, they’re out of their familiar surroundings and can get very anxious. I’m passionate about ensuring that from the moment they enter hospital, their voices are heard.

“They want to feel taken care of, not ignored or segregated, and that they can trust the people caring for them. I know some staff can be wary to approach LD patients in case they say something wrong. People with LD don’t want to be spoken down to or have their doctor talk to their family or carer rather than them, they should be consulted at every point in their treatment, and have it explained simply, so they can understand.”

At our launch event, Danny shared some of his own experiences, to help explain why our strategy is so important, including the time he had an autistic break when attending our Emergency Department several years ago. He explained how support from our LD team helped bridge the gap between him and the clinician, so he felt he was listened to and included in his consultation.

Our strategy has seven priorities which we will focus on over the next five years; person-centred care, reasonable adjustments, workforce, decision making, training, service user engagement, and transition. Progress against these will be monitored and regularly reported at our Safeguarding Operational Group and LD and Autism Working Group.

At the launch, Tim Buck, our lead nurse for LD and Autism, shared some areas which the team is already focusing on, including embedding further LD nurses across our Trust, and developing a career map to encourage nurses to specialise in LD by having a pathway to develop and progress their career.

We’ve also introduced mandatory LD training for all staff. Read more in Tim’s In Conversation With interview.

You can find our strategy on our website.