Praise For Team In Learning Disability Week

Every week Norwich mum Sam has to go to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital with one of her three children who all have learning disabilities.

“As all three have complex medical needs we use the services on a weekly basis, I have been taking them to hospital for the past 19 years, sometimes as an emergency.”

Now that her daughter is a young adult she has come across the support of the learning disabilities nurses Tara Webster and Jenny Wright and says “The service they provide is second to none.”

Choosing to speak out during Learning Disability Week Sam praised the “compassion and commitment” of the two nurses for liaising between departments and preparing staff for her teenage daughter’s arrival recently for a long stay in the hospital.

She said the staff on Cringleford ward were “absolutely fantastic” with a team who treated her daughter and their siblings with “respect and equality”.
“With input from Tara and Jenny we feel that she has been more respected as an individual by staff who she has come into contact with from various departments. Their involvement really has made a difference. And when they come along with us to scans that really helps.”
The liaison nurses have also sorted out a care plan which the teenager takes with her at all times in case she gets taken into hospital as an emergency. It explains her medical history, medications, allergies and the best way to approach her to alleviate some of her anxieties.
Speaking as a parent of three children with learning disabilities Sam explained “We do come across a lot of prejudice. Disability isn’t a choice but prejudice, ignorance and how you treat an individual with a disability is.”
But, said Sam, the liaison nurses had definitely improved the hospital experience and she could always telephone them when she needed support or help.
“I hope more people get to know it’s available and can make a difference”.
Acute Liaison Nurse for Learning Disability Tara Webster explained that her role was “to provide advice, support and training to hospital staff in order to ensure a more inclusive, accessible and improved quality of healthcare provision and to provide support to families and carers.”

“Tara said she loved the job because “It’s always changing and challenging and there is so much to achieve.”