Hospital Trust offers support to patients and staff with additional needs

Acute liaison nurses at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) and the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford, support the needs of patients with a learning disability, and help staff to understand those needs as well. They also help to plan appointments and can attend with patients.

These specialist nurses encourage patients to bring their Patient Passports to appointments. A Patient Passport is a document designed to improve patient safety, to empower patients and carers to enable better informed clinical decisions to reduce health inequalities.

Patient Passports

The Patient Passport contains information about a patient’s healthcare, their learning disability and how best to communicate in a hospital setting. They can be used for both planned appointments and also in an emergency.

The Sunflower Lanyard is another tool which is widely recognised and used to communicate a hidden disability. 

A sunflower lanyard encourages patients to ask for extra support if they need it and to let a member of staff know if they need any assistance.

The lanyards are available for free to patients and can be collected from the Treatment Centre and the Outpatients Reception at RSH or Women and Children’s Reception at PRH.

Recognising and supporting hidden disabilities

Hayley Flavell, Director of Nursing, said: “Recognising and supporting hidden disabilities fosters an inclusive healthcare environment, ensuring that all patients receive compassionate, personalised care that addresses their specific needs, promotes better overall health, and an improved experience of care.”

Earlier in the year the Trust also celebrated Neurodiversity Awareness Week. The aim of the week was to challenge stereotypes and misconceptions about neurological differences.

An ‘Autism Reality Experience Bus’ was based at RSH during the week. The bus provided an opportunity for colleagues to experience an immersive, hands-on training session designed to give a virtual experience of the sensory processing difficulties experienced by people living with autism. Staff had a practical experience giving them greater insight into an autistic person’s perspective of their environment.

Patient Experience Lead Ruth Smith, said: “When I put the experience goggles on, I was expecting certain things, such as light and sound to be more heightened, but I didn’t realise that my perception of the space around me would change.”

The experience was described by one colleague as: “Getting a sense of the sensory differences and challenges on the bus was a good way of experiencing difficulties which would not be recognised purely through discussion.

"The experience of sensory overload, was interesting to see how normal activities can be very different to people with autism – it was very enlightening."