Charity trains 1700 local health and social care staff in Understanding Autism

Over 1700 health and social care staff across Dorset have received new training to enable them to better support the autistic community.

The staff, who are all employed by Dorset Council, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, NHS Dorset, hospitals and community health providers took part in an autism training programme which is coproduced and co-delivered by Christchurchbased charity Autism Unlimited.

Autism Unlimited is a leading charity which provides education, training and supported living to children and young adults with autism from across the region.

Autism Unlimited has designed its training around the National Core capabilities

Framework for Autism (Supporting autistic people and/or people with a learning disability – Skills for Health) with two stages:

Understanding Autism, which is an e-learning course teaching learners what autism is and how the autistic community experience the world.

And Autism Acceptance, a face-to-face session which equips learners with strategies and techniques so they can help autistic people feel included, understood and supported.

From 1 July 2022 a new legal requirement was introduced by the Health and Care Act 2022 that all registered health and social care providers must ensure their staff receive training in learning disability and autism appropriate to their role.

Claire Causley, training manager at Autism Unlimited, said: “Autism is a neuro developmental condition which means an autistic person’s brain works differently.

“Autistic people may act in different ways to others and can sometimes find it difficult to communicate or interact with unfamiliar people in public areas which can be too loud, busy or new to them.

“As a result, accessing important health, care, financial or other support can be a daunting and stressful experience.

“During Autism Unlimited’s training programme learners are introduced to a range of different communication techniques and shown how to adapt the environment from a sensory perspective to allow an autistic person time to process the important information.” www.autism-unlimited.org