How Social Care Can Help People With Autism Thrive

In this episode of the Care CEO Success Stories Podcast, Adam James of Spring PR talks with Rebekah Cresswell, CEO of the Priory Group, the UK’s leading independent provider of mental healthcare and adult social care, supporting 26,000 people a year.

Rebekah, who trained as a nurse and worked in the NHS for 14 years, has a son who is autistic with ADHD, and witnessed first–hand what difficulties are faced by people with her son’s condition.

Rebekah discusses the challenges faced by people with complex needs in care settings and the strategies she employs to improve care based on her professional and personal experience including:

• How people with autism can become ‘trapped’ in hospital after experiencing mental health issues or episodes where “the environment can be noisy and distressing”.
• How behavioural problems are treated with medication rather than being given positive behaviour support.
• Outlining her mission to help people to be discharged from hospital into a long–term social care home and for staff to continue with this positive behaviour support.
• The difficulties around transitioning to a new home and how staff need to be prepared.
• Rebekah’s desire to develop an Assessment Transition Director for people with complex autistic needs.
• The role of the director in ensuring that the environment in the care home is prepared, and that staff are trained in any areas necessary, and support the home for up to six weeks.
• How residents with autism can be on up to ten antipsychotic medications when they are discharged from hospital and how Priory work with clinicians to slowly reduce the medication and “watch them come alive again.”
• When residents thrive in a care home environment, they begin to form relationships and do things they love to do with “one young man previously staying in his room constantly but now cycles out on his bike.”
• The importance of working in a multi-disciplinary team including GP’s and community mental health teams.
• Rebekah is a big advocate of care as a career, “people in social care have so many wonderful attributes and values that you do not get in other sectors.”
• How “we also need to be brave and speak up for and be the advocate for the autistic person or the person with a learning disability.”
• Carers are completing the Oliver McGowan Training in Learning Disability and Autism, named after Oliver McGowan, whose death shone a light on the need for health and social care staff to have better training after Oliver’s mother struggled to get clinicians to listen to her concerns.
• Rebekah’s Positive Culture Pledge – giving people dignity and respect and being patient with them. “If it’s not good enough for my family, it’s not good enough for my residents”.
• Why Rebekah visits the Priory facilities every month, sitting and talking with clients.
• Supporting families, by understanding what they have been through, having had traumatic experiences herself.
• Why it is a huge decision for families to put their trust in others to care for their loved one, and we are privileged to do this.
• Why regulators need to “think differently about placements,” particularly for those in hospital long term, who have more complex needs.
• Why we need excellent training with exciting career opportunities to “inspire people to want to work in this really exciting sector and build their career.”