Kingston Hospital - Learning Disability and Autism Strategy 2024 - 2026
Key messages and values from Kingston Hospital
This strategy has been developed with a flexible and adaptable approach so that the themes and actions reflect what our local community of people with a learning disability and/or autism, or their carers have to say about their experiences of receiving healthcare. These themes all align with the values and strategic objectives of Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare Trust. The themes also contribute to meeting the wider strategic objectives of the new Better Together partnership between Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare. The seven themes described for this Learning Disability and Autism strategy link to key objectives and priorities of the better together partnership.
This strategy will be the first joint strategy produced jointly by the acute and community subject matter experts. The purpose of this strategy is to guide our continuous efforts to improve the quality of care as we strive to build the foundations of an accessible and safe system for people with a learning disability.
Reducing Inequalities
As a hospital and community service we want to reduce inequalities for all our patients. This learning disability and autism strategy will help us do that through the key themes such as Supporting People’s Needs, and Training & Awareness. Projects will include work on identifying an individual’s reasonable adjustment needs at the first contact point with any health service, sharing the information effectively across providers in social care and health and meeting these needs. Hospital and community services are also working together to ensure our staff do the full Oliver McGowan Mandatory training.
Improving our Digital Capabilities.
We also want to improve how our digital and computer systems work for all patients. To improve this for our patients with a learning disability and autism we will be guided by our ‘Digital Access’ theme in the learning disability and autism strategy. Projects will include ensuring we record, flag, deliver and share reasonable adjustments and that the hospital’s digital portal and online access and information provided to patients across acute and community services is more accessible for all.
Better experience of hospital and community care for all:
We want all of our patients to have a better experience of care. To ensure we meet that objective for patients with a learning disability and/or autism we will be focusing on key themes such as end of life care, clear communication, and improving our environments. This will include information sharing projects such as strengthening our use of urgent/ universal care plans, being better at assessing pain, and identifying ways we can make environments more accessible and sensory friendly.
Services working together to help young people to become adults:
We recognise that for any young person who needs hospital care, the process of transitioning to adulthood is often a frightening time full of uncertainties. We will aim to explore how we can better support young people who have complex needs including learning disability and/or autism as they transition from paediatric to adult services. You can read more about the Kingston Hospital and Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare Better Together Strategy for 2024 – 2029 on the website here
