New hospital signs changes lives of people with a learning disability
A meeting with Cornwall Council’s Learning Disability team CHAMPS prompted an enormous change in signage at hospitals across the county.
Cilla Long, Patient Experience Officer, met with the Cornwall Health and Making Partnerships (CHAMPS) after discovering that they were having difficulty navigating clinical areas in hospitals. CHAMPS are a team of 7 people with learning disabilities and autistic spectrum conditions.
Cilla worked with Ben Law and Nicky Jones from CHAMPS to look at the current signage and to see how improvements could be made for those with disabilities such as learning difficulties, Alzheimer’s, or dementia.
Around 1.5m people in the UK have a learning disability. It’s thought that up to 350,000 people have severe learning disabilities.
A learning disability affects the way a person understands information and how they communicate. This means they can have difficulty understanding new or complex information, learning new skills, or coping independently.
“I found it so sad. I was visiting a hospital with one of the CHAMPS when we ended up in the kitchen as he could not navigate the hospital signs. He was distressed and extremely upset that he couldn’t do a simple task like visit a hospital. All because he could not understand the signage.” Cilla Long
Soon after, Cilla and the CHAMPS spent time creating self-explanatory signs for a pilot at Bodmin community hospital.
“We were guided where the CHAMPS thought signs should go and how they should look. We see things through different eyes, and we felt that the CHAMPS would be best to make these decisions. They were delighted to be so involved.”
Since the signage pilot, Cilla and the Patient Experience Team have received significant positive feedback. We are now fitting accessible signage into every hospital across the county.
“The pilot has grown. Each hospital provides different services, so there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ approach. We’re now having to expand our signage to cover all services and places of interest to match the hospital’s requirements.” Cilla Long
“Previously many people with a learning disability may avoid or miss appointments because of the anxiety surrounding finding the clinic or service within a hospital. We hope that the new signs will combat this.” Zoe Locke, Patient Experience Manager
“The new signage is going to help so many people attend their appointments; they have already changed my life.” Ben Law from CHAMPS