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Posted on 10 Jun 2024

Colleagues from Nottinghamshire Healthcare have been shortlisted in the National Learning Disabilities and Autism Awards 2024 for going above and beyond to support their patients.

 Jordan Green, Clinical Team Leader at Nottinghamshire Healthcare, at Highbury Hospital, has been shortlisted in the Frontline Leader category. She was nominated due to her outstanding support and input for an autistic patient. She was the patients named nurse and spent a lot of time researching, using evidence-based approaches for autism, and seeking out professionals from across the globe to aid her development in how best to support her patient. As a result, there is evidence that the patient’s outcomes and experience of acute services have improved.   

Jordan’s input allowed restrictive interventions, such as enforced treatment and restraint, to be avoided. Her input also allowed the team to gain a better understanding of the patient’s needs and how to best support her within our environment. In addition, this has allowed the ward to work within the STOMP agenda (stopping over medication of people with a learning disability, autism or both with psychotropic medicines), and increased the teams overall understanding and approaches to Autistic patients within our acute inpatient ward.

 A community nurse and speech and language colleagues from our  Community Intellectual Disability teams (CIDT) at the Trust, have been shortlisted in the Breaking Down Barriers category. This is for the development of an easy read sex and relationships booklet to use with IDD patients.   

Sara Dowling, Team Leader, IDD Specialist Community Nurses, who nominated the project said “I am so proud of this achievement, for their work to be recognised at these national awards is definitely something worth celebrating. We look forward to celebrating their achievements, regardless of the final outcome.”

For all of us, our relationships, sexuality, and sexual orientation are important parts of who we are. This Sex and Relationship Education Booklet has been created by clinicians working in the Community learning disability teams within Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IDD) services, including clinicians from both community nursing and speech and language therapy. It is designed to give people with IDD easy read information, and to help educate and answer questions about sex and relationships. It guides the clinician to deliver evidence-based practice on relationships and staying safe, along with a practical guide to sex itself.

It is designed to empower adults with an IDD, as well as supporting and respecting individuals’ choices and freedoms in terms of sexual rights. In addition, it supports clinicians to hold respectful conversations.

Paula Vaughan, Mental Health Care Group Director at Nottinghamshire Healthcare said :

“Congratulations to Jordan for being shortlisted, and to our Community Learning Disability team colleagues involved with this fantastic booklet. We’re really proud to have colleagues going above and beyond to adapt their care and support to best suit their patients’ needs. Wishing them all the best of luck for the next stage.”

Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on 21 June.