Gaining the views people of autistic adults with communication difficulties

Introduction “I don’t like some of my staff”; “My food is not good” Everybody should be able to say these kind of things. Sadly, high profile incidents reported in the media demonstrate that sometimes people on... [ view full abstract ]

Introduction

“I don’t like some of my staff”; “My food is not good”

Everybody should be able to say these kind of things. Sadly, high profile incidents reported in the media demonstrate that sometimes people on the autism spectrum with learning disabilities cannot.

Many people we support have communication problems. We knew what we wanted to ask but could not find adapted tools to use, so we made some.

Rationale

Regardless of communication styles, we should find ways of asking people about the care they receive, and continue to improve the design, delivery and evaluation of the service.
Speech and Language Therapy can work with services to help do this.

Main Points

We value good communication practice and employ a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) to work with our services.

Twelve key important areas in life were identified based on social care standards including: accommodation, staff, finances, peers, food, choices and being able to tell somebody you are upset.

The SLT developed 5 different tools: a questionnaire for people who can read, a symbols supported questionnaire, a Talking Mat (Cameron and Murphy, 2004), a simplified ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ and a staff questionnaire. The SLT then worked with each person and their staff to gain their views.

Conclusion

The feedback is summarised and given to relevant people involved in their care on their behalf. Gaining views in this way gives a voice to those who struggle to be heard and fosters a truly participatory approach to continuing to improve services.