Vocational Assessor and Coach, Vanessa Dean, was one of the first to put her hands up to help pilot some training to support people with a learning disability and autistic people – for very personal reasons.

Her six-year-old grandson, Noah (pictured here with her), has Down Syndrome (DS) Trisomy 21, and she sees first-hand how he is treated according to what he has, rather than who he is.

Vanessa takes up the story from here:

“It causes great concern for me as I fear he may fall into the figures of “death by indifference”.

"When he is poorly, instead of treating him as an individual, they just say it is part of him having Down Syndrome, which is not always the case. It’s important to treat the person first and foremost, whilst considering how their disability or learning difficulty may play a part but not solely focus on this.

"I wanted to get involved so we can teach our apprentices the importance of being educated in this field to protect our patients and so they can share what they have learned with their colleagues.

"I also hear people say: “that boy with Down Syndrome” or “that patient with dementia” instead of saying: "Noah who has Down Syndrome", or "Mary who has dementia".

"I am passionate about educating others to see the person before their disability or learning difficulty and help others to see the superpowers they have which can be channelled to create a better society.”

Are you in a non-patient facing role? Can you help pilot the training too?

Consultant Nurse, Amanda McKie, has been tasked to recruit 180 colleagues in non patient-facing roles to pilot the new Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism, which will be rolled out nationally next year.

Oliver’s training* has two tiers – and for now Amanda is looking to reach as many colleagues as possible from Workforce, Finance, Health Informatics and Corporate teams who all play a vital role supporting our patient-facing colleagues.

They will take part in Tier 1 training which is a 90-minute e-learning session, with an accompanying handbook, as well as an hour-long event (online or in person), with an autistic person and someone with a learning disability as experts by experience.

If you can help Amanda and want to register for a place, please email: learningdisabilities.chft@nhs.net 

Or if you have any questions, call Amanda on 07827 084120 or HRI 35 5741.

*The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism is named after Oliver McGowan, whose death shone a light on the need for health and social care staff to have better training.