Meeting your communication needs

The Accessible Information Standard (external link) tells us how to make information accessible to patients, service users and their carers or parents whose needs relate to a disability, impairment or sensory loss.

There are many good reasons why we are working to improve our provision of this standard:

  • To improve health and wellbeing amongst our service users and patients
  • To empower you to get involved and make decisions about your care and treatment
  • To improve patient safety by helping you to understand and follow information regarding your care and treatment
  • To address the barriers to communication
  • To improve patient experience and satisfaction.

Our five must dos:

Ask (identify) if people (patients, parents and carers) have any information or communication needs and find out how they would like those needs met

Record those needs, and consent, in a way that is highly visible on the electronic and/or paper record

Flag on the person’s electronic record, and any paper record

Share information about the person’s needs with other teams, services and other agencies and providers during referral, discharge or handover

Act (meet the needs) – make sure people get their information in the way they have requested and have their communication needs met.

More information about the Accessible Information Standard is available in other formats on the NHS England website (external link).

Oxleas_Accessible_Info_poster.pdf [pdf] 68KB

 

We are kind, we are fair, we listen

we’re kind we’re fair we listen we care