Northern Trust leads the way with roll out of Autism NI Impact Award

The Northern Health and Social Care Trust has shown it is leading the way by becoming the first Trust in Northern Ireland to complete the Autism NI Impact Award in a number of service areas.

As part of the process towards accreditation, staff from radiology, inpatient mental health, maternity, mental health supported living, day procedures and day surgery as well as Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and Children’s Early Intervention Services (CEIS) took part in Autism NI training and identified champions who went on to develop and implement action plans to help make their settings and facilities autism friendly.

In recognition of this significant collective achievement, autism champions from across Team North attended a special event to mark the Trust’s new ‘autism friendly’ status.  

Jayne Colville, the Trust’s Public Health Autism Co-ordinator, said: “This is an incredible achievement for the services involved, and I would like to say a huge thanks to the staff for the time and commitment that they have put into this work which will benefit our autistic community when they are accessing these services. 

“I am delighted to say that we now have 55 autism champions across the Trust who have implemented changes in order to make their services autism friendly. Making our services and facilities more autism friendly is something that our service users and families are really keen to see and will benefit tremendously from. Building on this work, our champions will continue to meet on an ongoing basis to learn from each other and share best practice.”

Carla Hartin, from the radiology team at Causeway Hospital, said being a part of the initiative has been an honour: “Working to create a safe and welcoming environment is ever evolving and fundamental in ensuring an inclusive service.  Liaising with the fantastic Jayne Colville and Gillian Steele and all the other autism champions has been inspiring, allowing for an organic and beneficial foundation to provide a much needed level of care and understanding.  We are excited to continue with the implementation of these action plans and always look forward to welcoming our patients with compassion and ensure they come away with a sense of being seen, heard and understood.”

Reflecting on the achievements of the Trust’s Maternity Services, Shauna McPeake, Antenatal Co-ordinator said: “Our team is excited to receive this recognition and we take pride in being the first in Northern Ireland to obtain autism friendly accreditation. This achievement holds great importance for us, and we are confident it will provide substantial benefits to our autistic maternity service users in the future.

Gillian Steele, the Northern Trust’s Project Co-ordinator, said: “It has been a fantastic experience collaborating with various services as they develop their action plans and make adjustments to become more autism friendly. It has been wonderful to witness the changes that have been implemented, and it's inspiring to see how much input the champions have contributed to these service developments.”