Making disability an asset in the NHS: Ambassadors or champions sought.
Peer support is increasingly popular around the edges of the system, perhaps even as a vehicle for newly diagnosed patients to explore how one can get the best out of life with and despite of a long-term condition.
There is more to that than just a one-way street to self-care. We are working on the 'other side' in the NHS where there are still strong imperatives on professional staff to be strong and different from patients seeking help.
To counteract this, we look for disabled ambassadors or champions who ideally already work in the NHS and could help us to inspire new ways of working and turn things around.
We want to invest in peer modelling to 'make disability an asset in the NHS' (acting as exemplar employer) with a view to co-produce models to inform and underpin the forthcoming Workforce Disability Equality Standard by the Equality and Diversity Council.
For instance, we want to create environments for disabled staff to open up to patients and share an aspect of their own story (if they wish and feel safe and supported to do so). On the back of lots of other related initiatives to strengthen self-efficacy in the workplace, disabled staff may then pave the way for building up rapport with patients at crucial points, eg at crisis and when it comes to convey/hear a diagnosis.
This is soft territory - which is why it is so hard to tackle. Inviting conversations, shaping the discourse in staff bulletins, blogs and wider internal campaigns will all help. Ultimately this is about role-modelling so we can achieve the change we want to see not against but 'in' the formal world, in the way we do things here - staff and patients together. If you are part of the NHS workforce and member of a disabled or lived experience staff group, please get in touch with bernd.sass@disabilityrightsuk.org