Emergency Department Care Bags supporting people with Learning Disabilities and /or Autism

This Learning Disability Week, West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership is sharing stories from across our five places, Bradford District and Craven, Wakefield, Kirklees, Calderdale and Leeds about the work that our Learning Disabilities Challenge teams are doing.

Our West Yorkshire Trusts have teams who support people with Learning Disabilities and Autism when they come into hospital for treatment and care. Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) and Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHT) have recently put in place care packs, known as Emergency Department care bags, for people who, because of their particular needs, can find waiting in a busy Emergency Department challenging. At LTHT, more than 200 bags have been given out since the project began.

At both Trusts, the Emergency Department care bag project was developed with close involvement from people with lived experience. Aaron Senior, Lived Experience Autism Advisor; Karen Sykes, Head of Nursing for Safeguarding and Kathleen Smith, Quality Improvement Clinician, Learning Disabilities and Autism Team at LTHT worked together to produce this video about the care bag, and some of the hospital’s lived experience volunteers also helped to make this video that brings to life the reasonable adjustments that can make hospital attendance less difficult and stressful for people with Learning Disabilities and / or Autism. 

At CHT, the Learning Disability nursing team worked with people from Project Search to design their bag, production of which was funded by the hospital’s charity.

Amanda McKie, Nurse Consultant for Learning Disabilities at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary said:

“We've had brilliant feedback about the Emergency Department care bags from some of our patients, including from mum Sammy and six-year old Jack who is autistic.

Sammy said: ‘Thank you so much for taking the time to complete a positive hospital visit with me and Jack, it was such a great experience for us both. The care bag is fantastic with a lovely selection of sensory supporting toys, this would certainly help make a visit to hospital easier for neurodiverse families.’

The bags are suitable for children, young people and adults with Learning Disability/Autism. They include ear defenders, tactile objects, a colouring book and crayons and an easy read leaflet about A&E to support them through tests and investigations while they are in the departments.

Amanda said getting feedback was the next step. “We will now be gathering feedback from everyone who gets one to find out the difference they made to their experience and if they could suggest any changes or improvements.”

Alison Conyers, Lead Professional, Learning Disabilities and Autism at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said:

“We are delighted that since we worked with our patients at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust to develop the bags, other Trusts have seen how supportive they are for patient care. The bags are one in a range of measures that Trusts can take that help patients access care in Emergency Departments, which can feel overwhelming at times. The Learning Disability and Autism Team at LTHT is supporting several organisations, locally and nationally, who are also beginning to use Emergency Department Care Bags.

Our next step at LTHT will be to roll out the bags to all emergency areas, including Eye Casualty and the Surgical Assessment Unit.”

West Yorkshire has higher numbers of adults with a learning disability receiving long-term support from Local Authorities comparative to the rest of England. Recognising this inequality, our ambition is that people with learning disabilities living in West Yorkshire will experience the best possible health care and have improved outcomes from their health services. Our Learning Disabilities Challenge is the programme that is driving this aim. This animation, created by our Learning Disabilities Champions Group, describes the work of the Challenge.