Sophie is a newly qualified children’s nurse who works at the Royal Brompton Hospital, and has dyslexia and borderline personality disorder. In this podcast, Sophie focusses more on her mental health than dyslexia, as she feels there is still a greater lack of awareness and stigma around mental health than physical health issues. Sophie discusses her reasoning for why she disclosed/declared her dyslexia to her colleagues, but only disclosed/declared her borderline personality disorder to Occupational Health. Sophie and Kerry talk about equality of access and how the work of WDES and others facilitates inclusion and support for disabled staff through Trust action plans, and relate this to the support Sophie has as a newly qualified nurse, and how good communication underpins this. 

Marce is a medical secretary at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust, and has osteoarthritis throughout her skeleton, as well as other significant disabilities. She set up the disability and wellbeing network there when she joined the Trust and found out there wasn’t one in place and describes how Covid-19 has promoted a greater connectivity amongst staff with disabilities in both welcoming new staff and responding to existing members. Marce and Kerry discuss the importance of electronic staff records in ensuring employers are aware of the needs of their staff, the importance of the WDES metrics as a push for Trusts and NHS Health organisations to publicly declare how they score on the 10 measures, and how they ensure staff are supported through reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010

https://www.facebook.com/BSUH-Disabled-Staff-Network-584413908739981 (facebook for the BSUH DSN Group)
 
https://twitter.com/BsuhStaff  (Twitter)

Justyna is a Speech and Language Therapist, working as part of a Community Learning Disability Team for Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust. Justyna has very recently been identified as autistic, and describes how she had grown up thinking she was ‘odd’, ‘awkward’ and just needed to ‘try harder’, but is now redefining herself in positive ways as a neurodivergent person. Justyna and Kerry relate the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists 5 standards of practice in ensuring equality of access for clients with disabilities to the 10 metrics in the work of WDES for staff with disabilities, and discuss reasonable adjustments to common workplace issues. Understanding an autistic brain https://neuroclastic.com/2020/04/02/guide/?fbclid=IwAR2EYiq-8F_3hCIfK3y0cYlJTt9XYzE-fxOKQ0fB0_sQ_75226cFDyjK4bE Five Good Communication Standards is the name of the document Justyna couldn't recall.