Clare, a resident of one of our schemes on the Isle of Wight, has been working with the NHS, taking on the role of an ‘expert by experience’ to support service improvement.
She’s been working with the team at St Mary’s Hospital to help patients with learning disabilities have a better experience when accessing healthcare.
Working with the Community Learning Disabilities Team, she’s been helping to complete audits, to evaluate how services within the hospital manage and the support the needs of patients with learning disabilities.
Part of her role is to ensure that people with learning disabilities’ voices are heard and to provide feedback reflecting on her own lived experience.
Clare has been super confident in speaking to staff and asking them questions about people’s care. She has recorded their answers and completed de-briefs with staff to rate their responses and make suggestions on how the services for people with learning disabilities may be improved.
The team are so proud of Clare, they say she has been really motivated and a quick learner, following instructions well.
Clare said: “I love doing this, I want to do more of it”.
The audits are just one project Clare has been working on. She has also worked with her peers on making information more inclusive and reviewing easy read documents.
Next, she’ll be involved in interviewing new staff, as well as providing training to the Learning Disability Champions at the hospital.