Caring for patients with additional needs
The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre is committed to providing excellent care for people diagnosed with dementia, learning disabilities and/or autism.
What do we mean by the term - Learning Disability?
A learning disability is a reduced intellectual ability and difficulty with everyday activities – for example household tasks, socialising or managing money – which affects someone for their whole life.
People with a learning disability tend to take longer to learn and may need support to develop new skills, understand complicated information and interact with other people (Mencap).
What do we mean by the term - Autism?
Autism is a lifelong developmental disability, which affects how people communicate and interact with the world. More than one in 100 people are on the autism spectrum and there are around 700,000 autistic adults and children in the UK (National Autistic Society).
What do we mean by the term - Dementia?
Dementia is a condition where problems with memory or other types of thinking make it hard for a person to do everyday activities by themselves. It can be caused by several different diseases that affect the brain. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia (Alzheimer’s Society).
Reasonable Adjustments
We appreciate that patients with dementia, learning disabilities and/or autism may require reasonable adjustments when they are receiving care and treatment.
A reasonable adjustment means that we change the way we care and treat patients to make sure that people can access our service.
The Safeguarding Team
The Safeguarding Team act as a point of contact for and providing advice and support for staff who are caring for patients with additional needs. The team liaise with other professionals such as social workers and learning disability facilitators as well as hospital staff to make sure the patient’s needs are being met.
The team support staff working with the patient to identify additional needs and to make reasonable adjustments. The team will encourage staff to use the Trust’s Reasonable Adjustment Care Plan and Hospital Passport. The team also attend meetings in the community so that we can help make the patient’s treatment journey with us as positive as possible.
The Hospital Passport can be downloaded here.
The Safeguarding Team is comprised of:
- Chief Nurse (Executive Lead for Safeguarding)
- Deputy Chief Nurse
- Named Nurse for Safeguarding
- Safeguarding Practitioner
The team can be contacted by phone: 0151 318 8668, or by email: ccf-tr.clatterbridge.safeguarding@nhs.net
Useful Links
Alzheimer’s Society – information and support in regards to dementia including a dementia support line | www.alzheimers.org.uk |
| Dementia Action Alliance – alliance for organisations across England to connect, take on dementia and work together to build Dementia Friendly Communities | www.dementiaaction.org.uk |
Easy Health – easy read resources
| www.easyhealth.org.uk |
Mencap – advice and support, training opportunities, events and projects
| www.mencap.org.uk |
| National Autistic Society – information, support and campaigns in order to transform lives and change attitudes for autistic people in the UK and their families | www.autism.org.uk |
