Vocational Trainer, Lisa Daly, is encouraging neurodiverse colleagues to complete their Disability Status in ESR to ensure they can be supported in their work environment.

The theme for this year’s Disability History Month is Disability, Livelihood and Employment. As Lisa has her own experience of working with neurodiversity, she explains more about the importance of everyone with a physical, mental, cognitive, or neurodiverse condition registering their status in ESR.

“I’ve worked at CHFT since 2019, and I have created a lot of strategies to manage my work. I know from years of experience what works best for me. My colleagues know that I have a spreadsheet for everything as I work better with tasks in writing. Even if we have a conversation, my teammates know to follow it up with an email – it’s the best way for me to be successful at work and I really appreciate that they recognise that.

“My role is also about supporting our clinical apprentices, so hopefully with my own experience I can be their advocate and mentor. For example, I know that having a ‘busy’ list can help. It’s a simple list of tasks that can be done if their work area has a quieter period. Our brains work a little bit differently, but we have a whole raft of skills and experience to offer.

“Several people I’ve spoken to over the past few weeks aren’t sure if they should complete it, as they’re not sure it really relates to them.

“I’m here to say it absolutely matters. It takes a minute and there is nothing more than a flag to complete in ESR, with no need to share any more personal details.”

Guidance on updating your information is on the Employee Self Service pages of the intranet - see Updating your Equality and Diversity Details.