Supporting people with ASD into the community

"I think Winslow is different and unique because we look after very complex individuals in the community but we manage to keep them safe and support their risk in a community setting".

Earlier in our Service Spotlight campaign we met Rachel Smyth, Manager and Registered Nurse at Winslow. Rachel has worked for St Andrew's as part of the ASD division for two and a half years and applied for the role at Winslow because of it's unique setting and approach. Talking about how she and her team support people with ASD (and LD) and complex mental health needs in the community Rachel said:

"All of our service users have their own front door to a self-contained apartment so the care we need to deliver is very individualised and needs to support people's needs that will often change on a daily basis, so adaptability in our approach is key. My team and our service users are one community and we build strong therapeutic relationships and use positive behavioural support to de-escalate risky situations"

Winslow supports people with a range of needs and all current service users have formerly spent time in hospital detained under the mental health act, moving to Winslow with a view to them returning to their communities and integrating back into a less restrictive environment.

We've made some changes to our Autistic Spectrum Disorder services 

Recognising and treating the layered complexity of needs of autistic people who have  complex mental illness is key to St Andrew's approach within our specialist ASD service 

Our ASD medium and low secure environments have moved into FitzRoy House, bringing all of our ASD clinical expertise into one hub.  These new ward environments have a smaller number of beds, some of the rooms have integrated adaptive lighting with plans to roll this out across the hub and there are a number of sensory areas. An onsite café offers a welcoming space for family and carer visits and there are extensive opportunities for sport, exercise and outdoor activities.

We also have specialist transitional living services on our Northampton hospital site and in the community in Nottinghamshire.

Within our service we’re open to be being reviewed by our external peers and are currently in the process of working with the National Autistic Society (NAS) to gain accreditation for our wards. Initial feedback has been very positive, scroll down the page to see what NAS said.