This week I had the privilege of attending the House of Lords (it’s such a grand building) for a really important celebration of the work that’s been happening across the NHS and beyond, in adopting the principles of #AskListenDo https://www.england.nhs.uk/learning-disabilities/about/ask-listen-do/
So often we don’t receive feedback, hear of concerns or have complaints from people with learning disabilities/Autism or their families, purely because WE don’t make the engagement and feedback process easy. Yet we do have a duty under the equality act to have processes in place to engage, seek out, hear and act on information that service users have.
This short story shares how life can feel for someone with a learning disability and how vital it is we listen and take action on their feedback.
Families who care for, along with people with learning disabilities, have led the #Asklistendo work.
You’d think that surely we would already ask people what matters to them, intuitively pick up on concerns, actively listen and then take action, BUT what’s clear from various reports into health, education and social care, is that we sadly fail at this repeatedly.
This powerful poem explains it and provides a call to action …
The event in the House of Lords brought people with LD/Autism, families, the voluntary sector, education, social care and health together to hear from those who had already adopted the principles and are working to socialise the #AskListenDo approach.
The wonderful Tricia Handley, our LD Nurse Specialist at Barts Health spoke of the work to be truly person centred across the Trust and specifically, to make blood tests less traumatic and daunting. Kindness, patience and the commitment to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ can make all the difference to creating positive experiences of hospital care that can last a lifetime, as well as impacting on people with LD accessing healthcare confidently in the future.
Adopting the spirit of #AskListenDo can be achieved by asking ourselves:
1. Have we got our active listening right? Do we ensure people have the attention and focus needed in busy frenetic environments? How can we make environments calmer? What connections have we got with our local community and voluntary sector to hear about what matters most to people?
2. Are our basic processes for getting things done right? Are we using flagging systems effectively? Do we have easy read complaint leaflets? When we listen, do we follow up on our commitments and deliver on actions?
3. Are we supporting staff/teams delivering care with the education and skills to meet the needs of those with LD/Autism? Do our reception, call centre as well as healthcare staff have the education and insight they need to enhance their practices?
Someone commented how straightforward the #AskListenDo approach is and whilst I agree I also think we need to be committed universally to nurturing a culture that makes giving feedback easy for everyone. And of course we need to be honest about the changes we can make and get on with, or the stuff that’s really ‘wicked’ and may take a bit longer.
So an ask, will you be a champion for #AskListenDo and spread the approach?
Kath Evans Connecting 