The Autism Champions Network
Autism Champions is a network of people from different areas within Mersey Care and also some Local Authority and Primary Care staff.
The aim of the champions is to increase awareness and understanding of autism and indeed neurodiversity.
Each member of the champions are expected to attend the meetings where we do various things, to date we have had talks on:
- STOMP (Stopping the over medication of people with a learning disability, autism or both with psychotropic medicines) and STAMP (supporting treatment and appropriate medication in paediatrics) reviewing a webinar
- an author and blogger talking about his experience of growing up with a sibling with autism
- clinical cases discussions
- Presentation from Researcher/lecturer at Manchester University on Motor coordination difficulties in autistic adults
- expert by experience talking about her experience of receiving Autism and ADHD diagnosis as an adult and mental health services.
As a champion, you will receive additional training and attend CPD events but also become part of the network where people share resources etc. The whole ethos of the model is that the champion will disseminate their knowledge about autism/neurodiversity within their team and promote reasonable adjustments within their locality.
For further details, please contact Dr Sonia Anderson, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Lead for the ASC diagnostic service by e-mailing at Sonia
What we ask of each champion is to seek approval from their manager and inform the team and also to read and complete the ‘contract’ (linked below) and also to complete a ‘one page profile’ which we plan to include here.
Resources
The next Autism Champions meeting is 24 June 2024 from 12.30 to 2pm (via MS Teams) for details email Sonia
The Learning Disability Champions Network
The role of a Learning Disability Champion is to:
- advocate for people with learning disabilities (and their carers) accessing adult mental health and community services
- promote awareness of learning disabilities and reasonable adjustments
- liaise with specialist learning disability services
- be a source of information and support for your team regarding learning disabilities, reasonable adjustments and the Green Light Toolkit
- share information from the Learning Disability Champions Network with your teams.
Learning Disability Champions – what do I get?
- Increased clinical skills through an increase in knowledge and skill set by, for example, attending learning disabilities champions events /training, receiving recent research information and being engaged in clinical conversations within Learning disabilities Champions meetings
- Attendance at a quarterly learning disabilities champions meeting with an added CPD/Training offer
- Opportunity to share best practice and innovations from your service with other Learning disabilities Champions
- Increased connection and networking with the Learning disabilities service and request advice and support as needed.
To volunteer as a Learning Disability Champion, confirm your attendance at the quarterly meeting with your manager and contact Georgia Fair (highly specialist occupational therapist) via email: Georgia
On joining the Learning Disability Champions Network, we ask that you sign a contract and share a ‘one page profile’ with the network and with your team, so people know you are the Learning Disability champion. You will be added to the Learning Disability Champions Teams channel, where you will have access to lots of resources. Our previous CPD sessions include:
- What is a Learning Disability?
- Communication, Eating, Drinking and Swallowing.
- Person Centred Care and Reasonable Adjustments.
Resources
The next meeting will be on the 7 August from 9.30am – 11.30am (via MS Teams) for details email Georgia