Staff experience hospital from another viewpoint

An innovative new scheme has been tested in Yorkshire to highlight the experiences that people with learning disabilities encounter in hospitals.

Staff at Airedale hospital in Bradford have held a "getting together day" to see how suffers are treated at hospitals across the county, reports the Bradford Telegraph and Argus.

The Diversity drama group from Harrogate Primary Care Trust performed a play portraying positive and negative experiences of visiting hospitals and staff held discussions with people with learning disabilities to learn more about how they feel towards treatment.

Staff learned about the information needed by the hospital prior to the admission of a person with learning disabilities.

Anne Shirley, event co-ordinator, told the newspaper that the day had been a "great success" and everybody learned that "communication is important".

"We will be continuing our link with the local specialist learning disability service and the feedback was so good that we are thinking about making it a yearly thing," she concluded.

The West Yorkshire Playhouse is running an event, called the Dandy Lion Club, for young people with learning disabilities on the May 11th having secured small amounts of funding.

It is the first time it has used the scheme for a younger audience following the successes of its Beautiful Octopus Club for adults with learning disabilities.


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