ISQUA17-1743PEOPLE WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES AS EQUAL PARTNERS IN SERVICE IMPROVEMENT

Abstract

Introduction: A national UK charity which campaigns alongside thousands of people with a learning disability and their friends and families for the changes they want to see in society states that 'learning disability has been invisible for too long. It's time to see people with a learning disability for all they are and all they can be.' A series of public inquiries has highlighted poor care in health and social care services for people with learning disabilities. Experience based codesign (EBCD) is a participatory action research method which has also been used increasingly as a quality improvement approach to improve the experience of service users. The majority of projects in England have been in acute hospitals. However, it has been successfully adapted for learning disability services and has enabled service users and their carers to make their experiences heard and to work as equal partners in making improvements. Objective(s): 1) To improve the experience of care for people with learning disabilities using the EBCD approach 2) To demonstrate that the EBCD method can be adapted successfully in learning disability services. Method(s): Experience based codesign (EBCD) is a method with two phases: the discovery phase and the design phase. The discovery phase involves collecting information about the experience of both service users and staff through interviews which are filmed, observation and emotional mapping. Events are held separately with staff and service users to identify priorities for improvement. The co-design phase involves staff and patients meeting together, to hear each others' priorities, watch the films and choose three or four areas to re-design. Working groups are formed and over the next few months staff and service users together create ideas, prototype and test and implement improvements. There is now a good body of evidence to show that positive outcomes are achieved in terms of service improvements and impact on participants. Two projects adapted this method to improve learning disability services (in Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust and Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust) - for example by creating new written materials, and running the events differently. Service users created and tested their solutions for improving the service with staff. Result(s): Better communication with service users was made an absolute priority, and both projects resulted in introducing new ways to do this - for example communication passports for service users, staff contact cards, the use of a social media platform to communicate. Other changes include new training for health care staff in communication, patients on interview panels and a new community network for family carers. In both projects the method was successfully adapted and service users and their family carers felt that they had expressed their views, but also suggested and helped to bring about change. Conclusion(s): EBCD can be used successfully to ensure the voices of service users with learning disabilities are heard and to enable them to improve their own services as equal partners with healthcare staff.