Accessing charitable funds made our services more inclusive and accessible for people with learning disabilities
Donations to Croydon Health Charity fund improvements where they’re needed most. With your support the charity have been able to provide funding to the Community Learning Disability team to upskill themselves, to be able to provide better care for our most vulnerable service users.
The team has been focusing on trauma informed care this year, which is a big area of development in clinical services for users with learning disabilities. People with learning disabilities are more likely to be disadvantaged, and more likely to receive poorer health outcomes and be exposed to adverse experiences throughout their lives.
The team benefited from having access to specialist books and resources to develop their skills and their confidence working with people with learning disabilities and complex trauma histories. Through this process they were able to broaden the range of therapeutic interventions offered in the service. This will improve the outcomes for their service users.
The team also utilised funding previously during the Covid-19 pandemic by purchasing tablets/iPads to assist with providing support to service users with learning disabilities experiencing social and digital exclusion.
As a result, service users that had different cognitive abilities and communication needs where able to communicate with staff. This enabled staff to make reasonable adjustments and adapt their communication needs and make their interventions more accessible.
During that time, mask wearing was mandatory for staff so it became difficult to explain and demonstrate something as unassuming as slow deep breathing techniques. However, due to the view of the mouth being restricted, the online resources became really helpful for staff as they were able to signpost to accessible videos demonstrating these techniques online.
Croydon Health Charity provides practical and emotional support for staff and patients of Croydon Health Services NHS Trust.