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Showing results for tags 'Autism'.
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News ArticleA police investigation is under way into allegations of abuse at an NHS-run home for men with severe learning disabilities and autism, it has emerged. Several staff from the home have already been “removed” from the site by Surrey and Borders Partnership Foundation Trust, although the trust would not comment on whether any disciplinary action has been taken against them. The home – Oakwood, in Caterham, Surrey – will close at the end of the summer in response to the failings, the trust said. No one has been charged in relation to the allegations, which HSJ understands focus on coercive behaviour and unnecessary deprivation of liberty, with no allegations of violent or sexual behaviour. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 9 June 2023
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Content ArticleAn NHS-Led Provider Collaborative is a group of providers of specialised mental health, learning disability and autism services who have agreed to work together to improve the care pathway for their local population. They will do this by taking responsibility for the budget and pathway for their given population. The Collaborative will be led by an NHS Provider who remains accountable to NHS England and NHS Improvement for the commissioning of high-quality, specialised services. These Collaboratives aim to ensure that people with specialist mental health, learning disability and autism needs experience high quality, specialist care, as close to home as appropriately possible. They seek to enable specialist care to be provided in the community to prevent people being in hospital if they don’t need to be, and to enable people to leave hospital when they are ready. This webpage explains the role of NHS-Led Provider Collaboratives and includes case studies that demonstrate how they are helping to transform specialised mental health services.
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News Article
Autistic teenager was stuck on general hospital ward for months
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An autistic girl aged 16 spent nearly seven months in a busy general hospital due to a lack of suitable children's mental health services in England. The teenager, called Molly, spent about 200 days living in a side-room of a children's ward at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth. It is not a mental health unit. Experts say a general hospital was not the right place for her, but she had nowhere else to go because of a lack of help in the community. Agency mental health nurses were brought in because she needed constant, three-to-one observations to keep her safe. Her family says security guards were also often stationed outside her room. Like many autistic people, Molly finds dealing with noise difficult. The clamour of the hospital overloaded her senses and her behaviour sometimes became challenging. She was restrained numerous times. A spokesperson for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System (ICS) said it was sorry Molly "did not receive care in an environment better suited to her needs", adding: "Molly's safety has always been our priority." Campaigners describe the shortage of appropriate support for people with autism as a human rights crisis. Read full story Source: BBC News, 10 May 2023- Posted
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News Article
'Dire' situation for adults waiting for ADHD diagnosis in NI
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Adults in Northern Ireland seeking assessment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are being forced to go private because of a dire lack of referral services in some areas, a charity has said. Some health trusts have not been able to accept new referrals for adult assessment and diagnosis. ADHD charities said a lack of services or even waiting lists has forced many people to pay for a private diagnosis. The charity's chief executive Sarah Salters added that some people who do get a private diagnosis cannot then get medication from their GP through the NHS. The Department of Health said officials "are considering longer-term arrangements" for ADHD services, with future decisions "likely to be subject to ministerial approval and availability of funding". Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 April 2023 -
Content ArticleAutistic patients trapped in mental health units tell their stories, revealing a system of poor treatment, abuse and long stretches inside with their symptoms only getting worse.
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News Article
Children must wait for ‘crisis’ before autism diagnosis, say overwhelmed systems
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
New restrictions are being introduced for autism assessments, with some areas now only accepting referrals for patients in crisis, HSJ has learned. Commissioners in North Yorkshire and York have become the latest to introduce new criteria for autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder referrals. Getting a diagnosis is key to unlocking care packages such as speech and language therapy, counselling, or special educational needs. They said the changes are due to “unprecedented demand that has exceeded supply, resulting in unacceptable wait times and the need to prioritise resources towards children and most at-risk adults”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 30 March 2023- Posted
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News Article
Bristol children must be in crisis before autism referral, say parents
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Children must now be in crisis before they can be referred for an autism diagnosis, parents claim. The strict new eligibility criteria in the Bristol region comes after a 350% rise in the number waiting more than two years for assessment. Changes made by the NHS mean children will only be referred with "severe and enduring" mental health issues. The Integrated Care Board (ICB) said it meant resources could now focus on those with "the highest clinical need". Some parents have launched the campaign Assess for Autism in protest against the rule change. An Assess for Autism spokesperson said children would now have to be at crisis point before being referred, describing the policy as "deeply concerning" and "regressive". However, healthcare provider Sirona, which provides autism diagnosis services, and the Integrated Care Board (ICB), which formally approved the new policy, insist it is necessary because families are waiting too long. They said resources can now be focused on those with the "highest clinical need or are the most vulnerable". Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 March 2023- Posted
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EventuntilThe 2023 Mental Health Network Annual Conference and Exhibition will bring together over 130 senior leaders from the mental health, learning disability and autism sector for lively discussions on the future of services, to share good practice, horizon scan, and network with their peers. The next year brings a range of opportunities and challenges for mental health providers. Organisations are continuing to deliver services whilst facing unprecedented community need, workforce shortages and with the cost of living risking eroding the mental wellbeing of the wider population. Even with these challenges, 2023 presents a year of opportunities. This includes funding secured to continue to deliver the NHS Long Term Plan, a new landscape of integrated care, significant community transformation work underway, and key bills passing through parliament aimed at improving the policy environment mental health providers operate in. The Network’s members will once again come together to focus on the challenges and opportunities the mental health sector faces within the changing context. Register
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News Article
Outstanding trust handed warning notice
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An ‘outstanding’ rated acute trust has been served with a warning notice by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and told to make ‘significant and immediate improvements’ to its mental health and learning disabilities services. The CQC said staff at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust had not always carried out mental capacity assessments when people presented with mental health needs. And this included when decisions were made to restrain patients in the emergency department. A CQC warning notice, published alongside a report of an inspection between 30 November and 1 December last year, says the trust must make “significant and immediate improvements in the quality of care being provided” to people with mental health issues, learning disabilities or autism. The warning notice also says the trust must ensure people with a learning disability and autistic people “receive care which meets the full range of their needs”. The trust’s records “did not show evidence that staff had considered patients’ additional needs,” the regulator said. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 24 February 2023- Posted
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News Article
‘Institutionalised’ staff ‘perpetuating long hospital stays’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Nearly half of NHS patients with a learning disability or autism are still being kept inappropriately in hospitals, several years into a key programme to reduce inpatient care, a national review reveals. The newly published review by NHS England suggests 41% of inpatients, assessed over an eight-month period to May 2022, should be receiving care in the community. Reasons given for continued hospital care in the NHSE review included lack of suitable accommodation, with 19% having needs which could be delivered by community services; delays in moving individuals into the community with appropriate aftercare; legal barriers, with one region citing “ongoing concerns for public safety” as a barrier for discharge; and no clear care plans. In some cases, individuals were placed in psychiatric intensive care units on a long-term basis, because “there was nowhere else to go”, while another instance cited a 20-year stay in hospital. Other key themes included concerns about staff culture, particularly “institutionalisation” and suggestions that discharge delays were not being sufficiently addressed. The report adds: “While the process around discharge can be time consuming, staff may perpetuate this by accepting such delays as necessary or inevitable.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 22 February 2023- Posted
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Content ArticleThis report details the findings of a thematic review of Safe and wellbeing reviews (SWRs) between October 2021 and May 2022. SWRs are undertaken for children, young people and adults that are autistic and/or have a learning disability who are being cared for in a mental health inpatient setting. SWRs are part of the NHS response to the safeguarding adults review concerning the tragic deaths of Joanna, Jon, and Ben at Cawston Park Hospital, who were each detained for a long period of time and did not receive appropriate care.
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Content ArticleThe STOMP and STAMP programme of work is about making sure children and young people with a learning disability, autism or both are only prescribed the right medication, at the right time and for the right reason. This leaflet produced by Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and NHS England provides information to parents about psychotropic medicines.
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Content ArticleIn July the Health and Care Act 2022 introduced a requirement that regulated service providers ensure their staff receive training on learning disability and autism which is appropriate to the person’s role. The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism is the standardised training that was developed for this purpose and is the government's preferred and recommended training for health and social care staff to undertake. It is named after Oliver McGowan, whose death shone a light on the need for health and social care staff to have better training. It is the only training with permission to include Paula McGowan OBE, telling Oliver's story and explaining why the training is taking place. An elearning package is the first part of both Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training and is now live. Everyone will need to do the elearning no matter where they work and what tier they need to complete. The next part is either a live one hour online interactive session for those needing Tier 1,or, a 1-day face to face training for people who require Tier 2.
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Event
HoPE Storytelling Festival - Made by Mortals
Sam posted an event in Community Calendar
To share the learning and resources from the award-winning (The Royal Society of Public Health - Arts in Health 2022) community partnership programme between Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS FT, Made By Mortals CIC (arts organisation) and over 50 patients with a broad range of lived experience- including mental ill health, learning disability, autism, English not as their first language, and people that identify as non-binary. The project used immersive audio case studies coproduced by patients, including the use of music, sound effects, and drama, together with an interactive workshop that challenged volunteers and staff at the hospital to take a walk in the patient’s shoes. The experiential community-led training raised awareness of the challenges that people with protected characteristics and additional needs face. This work supported Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS FT ongoing approach to quality and diversity and supported attendees to adapt their behaviours to create an empathetic and person-centred environment. Register- Posted
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Content ArticleLifelong and persistent sensory sensitivities are a diagnostic characteristic of autism. As public transport, waiting areas and other clinical settings are more likely to be inaccessible to autistic people, they may reach crisis before receiving healthcare. Inpatient settings without adaptations for autistic people’s sensory needs may risk autistic people being distracted or overwhelmed during therapy and/or excluded and segregated from the ward environment. Environments that are not ‘autism friendly’ can: impede the effectiveness, or hamper the delivery of, therapeutic intervention exacerbate poor mental health lead to the use of restrictive practices such as restraint, seclusion or segregation. NHS England provides this resource pack to improve the sensory environment throughout healthcare.
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News ArticleHundreds of thousands of children have been left waiting by the NHS for the developmental therapies they need, with some waiting more than two years, The Independent can reveal. The long waiting lists for services such as speech and language therapy will see a generation of children held back in their development and will “impact Britain for the long haul”, according to the head of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH). More than 1,500 children have been left waiting for two years for NHS therapies, according to internal data obtained by The Independent, while a further 9,000 have been waiting for more than a year. The total waiting list for children’s care in the community is 209,000. Dr Camilla Kingdon, president of the RCPCH, told The Independent: “The extent of the community waiting lists is extremely alarming. Community health services such as autism services, mental health support and speech and language therapy play a vital role in a child’s development into healthy adulthood, and in helping children from all backgrounds reach their full potential. “A lack of access to community health services also has direct implications for children and families in socio-economic terms. Delays accessing these essential services can impact social development, school readiness and educational outcomes, and further drive health inequalities across the country.” She said health and care staff are working immensely hard, but that without support they will struggle to address the long delays, which will “impact Britain for the long haul”. Read full story Source: The Independent, 26 December 2022
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Content ArticleIn September 2022, The Care Quality Commission published four reports into the care provided by Spectrum a provider of Autism services in Cornwall. All four inspections concluded that the services were inadequate.
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News Article
NHSE estimates mortality rate for autistic people is 51% higher
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Autistic people in England who do not also have a learning disability are approximately 51% more likely to die in a single year compared to the general population, according to a leaked document which estimates the mortality rate for the first time. According to an internal NHS England document, seen by HSJ, the standardised mortality rate between April 2020 and March 2021 was 16.6 deaths per 10,000 for people with autism and no learning disability compared to 11 deaths per 10,000 for the general population. NHSE also determined life expectancy for this group to be 75 years – 5.4 years less than the general population. Dominic Slowie, former national clinical director for learning disability, told HSJ that because of the different ways autism presents itself, it can be difficult to pinpoint causes of premature mortality. “In some cases, people with autism who are severely disabled and can’t communicate their needs in a conventional way are going to have premature mortality for the same reasons that people with a learning disability do, because people do not really understand the level of their need or do not investigate their need in a reasonably adjusted way,” he said. “While, if someone is presenting atypically in their communication, we mustn’t make presumptions – we must make reasonable adjustments to ensure they are investigated and diagnosed in the same way.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 13 December 2022- Posted
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Content ArticleThis report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) looks what people with a learning disability and autistic people experience when they need physical health care and treatment in hospital. People with a learning disability face huge inequalities when accessing and receiving health care, and initiatives to try and improve people’s experiences have not brought about improvement at the speed or scale needed. The consequences of this are serious, as when people do not get care and support that meets their individual needs, it can lead to avoidable harm and premature death. Equity for people with a learning disability and autistic people is therefore a critical patient safety issue.
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News Article
Oliver McGowan: NHS autism training mandatory after teen's death
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Mandatory training for treating people with autism and learning disabilities is being rolled out for NHS health and care staff after a patient died. It comes after Oliver McGowan, 18, from Bristol, died following an epileptic seizure. At the time, in November 2016, he had mild autism and was given a drug he was allergic to despite repeated warnings from his parents. His mother Paula lobbied for mandatory training to potentially "save lives". A spokesman for the NHS said the training had been developed with expertise from people with a learning disability and autistic people as well as their families and carers. The first part of the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training is being rolled out following a two-year trial involving more than 8,300 health and care staff across England. Mark Radford, chief nurse at Health Education England said: "Following the tragedy of Oliver's death, Paula McGowan has tirelessly campaigned to ensure that Oliver's legacy is that all health and care staff receive this critical training. "Paula and many others have helped with the development of the training from the beginning. "Making Oliver's training mandatory will ensure that the skills and expertise needed to provide the best care for people with a learning disability and autistic people is available right across health and care." Read full story Source: BBC News, 2 November 2022- Posted
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News Article
Vulnerable patients injured by 'inadequate' service
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A troubled trust’s inpatient wards for people with a learning disability or autism have been rated “inadequate”, with staff criticised for resorting to restraint too readily which sometimes injured patients. Care Quality Commission inspectors visited Lanchester Road Hospital in Durham and Bankfields Court in Middlesborough, run by Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys Foundation Trust, in May and June. They found most people were being nursed in long-term segregation and some patients had very limited interaction with staff. Among the CQC’s main criticisms was of high levels of restrictive practice used by staff, including seclusion, restraint and rapid tranquilisation. Inspectors said incidents were not always recorded and staff did not learn from them to reduce levels of restrictions in place. They also warned staff were not always able to understand how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Karen Knapton, CQC’s head of hospital inspection, said: “Three people had been injured during restraints, and 32 incidents of injury had been reported for healthcare assistants, some requiring treatment. “This is unacceptable and measures must be put in place to keep patients and staff safe.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 5 October 2022- Posted
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Content ArticleThis is the story of the avoidable death of Glyn Davies, as told by his sister Anne. Glyn had an obstruction of the small bowel caused by adhesions from previous surgery and died from aspiration pneumonia after two weeks in intensive care at The Royal Lancaster Infirmary. Glyn's family felt that the investigation following his death had not been dealt with well, with evidence being withheld from the Coroner. This included information in Glyn's medical notes that indicated he had caught the hard-to-treat bacterial infection Stenotrophomonas Maltophilia, from either the ventilator or tubes whilst in intensive care. The family then took legal action against The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust and the case was settled out of court in March 2020.
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Content ArticleThis document outlines the UK Government's response to the Health and Social Care Select Committee report on the treatment of autistic people and people with learning disabilities, published in July 2021. It contains responses to three main areas of interest raised by the Committee's report: Community support: reducing the number of autistic people and people with learning disabilities in inpatient facilities, and the benefits of the Trieste model The use of restrictive practices in inpatient facilities and wider concerns relating to the appropriateness and continued use of such facilities The wellbeing of and accountability for autistic people and people with learning disabilities including the creation of a new role: the Intellectual Disability Physician, and the need for independent reviews into the deaths of autistic people and people with learning disabilities
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Content ArticlePeople with a learning disability and autistic people should have the right support in place to live an ordinary life and fulfil their aspirations, in their own home. This action plan from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) aims to strengthen community support for people with a learning disability and autistic people, and reduce reliance on mental health inpatient care. This action plan outlines the government's policy to achieve this by: strengthening community support. reducing the overall reliance on specialist inpatient care in mental health hospitals. improving the experiences of people with a learning disability and autistic people across public services such as health, social care, education, employment, housing and justice. It brings together the commitments that have been made by different organisations to realise these aims, and aims to drive long-term change for people with a learning disability and autistic people.
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News Article
Half of all deaths of people with a learning disability ‘avoidable’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Nearly half (49%) of all deaths of people with a learning disability in 2021 were deemed to be avoidable, a major annual report has found. By comparison, just 22% of deaths were classified as avoidable among the overall general population in 2020. A new report, led by King’s College London and produced for NHS England – identified that of those avoidable deaths among people with learning disabilities, 65.5% died in hospital. The learning from life and death reviews programme (LeDeR) report also revealed that the Midlands and North West showed the greatest difference in avoidable to unavoidable deaths at 53%, compared to 48% in London. And when looking at individual long-term conditions, 8% of avoidable deaths were related to cancer, 17% to diabetes, 14% to hypertension, and 17% to respiratory conditions. It also found that: More than 50% of people with a learning disability died in areas rated as some of the most deprived in England Around six out of 10 people with a learning disability die before age 65, compared to 1 in 10 from the general public On average, men with a learning disability die 22 years younger than men from the general population. Read full story Source: Healthcare Leader, 18 July 2022- Posted
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