Safeguarding and Vulnerabilities Team

Safeguarding

At the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, safeguarding is fundamental to our commitment to delivering safe, high-quality, compassionate and inclusive care. We are committed to ensuring that children, young people and adults at risk are protected from harm, abuse and neglect, and that safeguarding is embedded in everything we do.

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, and we will work proactively to create an environment where people feel safe, listened to, respected and supported, in line with our Trust values and vision.

Learning Disabilities and Autism

Our learning disability and autism team support you to access our services and act to reduce barriers to good quality healthcare.

The team supports all staff to provide specialist care, advice and treatment in a way that suits you. This covers all children and adults who attend the ROH for outpatient appointments, therapy appointments or inpatient stays who have a learning disability or autism.

The learning disability nurse works closely with staff to ensure your needs are met and appropriate reasonable adjustments are put in place. The learning disability nurse liaises with you, your parent/carer, staff, other professionals involved and external agencies to coordinate your care.

Transition to Adult Services

In healthcare, we use the word transition to describe the process of preparing, planning and moving from children’s to adult services. Transition is a gradual process that gives young people, and everyone involved in care, time to get ready to move to adult services and discuss what healthcare needs are required as an adult. At the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, we use the Ready, Steady, Go programme to support children and young people moving into adult services.

Mental Health and Dementia Support

At The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, we are committed to ensuring that every patient receives the right support for their Dementia and Mental Health.

Sometimes patients with dementia may not be able to make their own decisions because of cognitive decline. When a patient cannot make their own decisions about their hospital care, our staff will liaise with relatives/carers to make decisions in the best interest of the patient. Relatives/Carers know the person best and can represent the views of the person to inform decisions and choices.

Our staff will be following the Mental Capacity Act process and relatives and carers are central to this process when a person cannot make their decisions. If a person has legally appointed someone to help them make decisions or to make decisions on their behalf, known as A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA), we must see the original LPA document and take a photocopy to be placed in the front of the patients’ inpatient notes. We cannot treat an LPA as being valid until we have seen it.

The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital will have Dementia champions on every ward and care environment to promote dementia awareness. Within our hospital we provide an opt-in Butterfly scheme to promote dementia awareness and assist us in providing person centred care. Please speak to a member of staff for further details.

Our Vulnerabilities Practitioner provides specialist guidance, signposting, and coordinated care to help patients access the mental health services they need. Our service will offer advice on mental health and dementia-related concerns, signpost to appropriate NHS or community services and guidance on pathways into local mental health services.

Our goal is to ensure patients receive the most appropriate support based on their level of need. If a patient is assessed as not requiring an emergency or urgent mental health response but would benefit from ongoing support, the team will signpost the patient person to their GP practice, provide information on community mental health organisations and offer signposting to third sector and voluntary support services.

As a patient If you are attending either day surgery, pre-operative assessment appointment or an outpatient appointment and you require urgent mental health support, you will need to contact NHS 111 option 2 who can provide immediate guidance and connect you with the right support service.

The Vulnerabilities Team delivers person centred care that focuses on supporting overall wellbeing and working closely with partners across the health and social care sector. The NHS Mental Health services in Birmingham and Solihull are provided by Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust.