The Essex Carers Network (ECN) team attended the ADASS East of England Learning Disabilities Network Event on Wednesday 4th of October at the Novotel Hotel.
Alongside us Jordan, a local self-advocate, attended this in-person meeting. The meeting was made accessible for anyone unable to attend in person, so there were online attendees as well. The day was well organised and an agenda was shared. We pledged on the day that we would share information from the day in a blog format.
We were pleased to see a selection of slides narrated by self-advocates and staff from Ace Anglia about the East of England NHS Coproduction Group we attended the previous month, including a video where Wendy spoke about ECN being able to share families’ voices and about advocacy and self-advocacy in Essex.
(Use the link below to watch the video)
Self-advocacy is important to family carers and in some areas, it can be difficult to get peer support. Families are faced with challenges when a loved one is not able to advocate for themselves and requires support from their family.
The meeting shared the importance of people’s voices and self-advocacy.
We had a presentation from Ace Anglia Talk Tech team, sharing the importance of digital technology and how they use tech. Accessible information promotes inclusivity and equal opportunities for autistic people and people with a learning disability. It helps people to understand information in all areas of their lives, such as education, employment, and health and social care. By removing barriers, accessible design helps create a more equal society. To find out more about Ace Anglia visit their website: Independent advocacy organisation based in Suffolk (aceanglia.com)
We were provided with a hot lunch and an opportunity to network with colleagues and organisations along with family carers.
The second half of the event was focused on Learning Disability Digital Inclusivity. Members of Talk Tech gave us a talk about technology. We were joined by some digital providers online who shared information about digital apps that are available. One app was Maldaba Hear Me Now App. Hear Me now allows people to capture and share information about themselves in a way that’s meaningful to them.
Dr Naveed Iqbal, who joined us online gave us insight into the NHS Tritone Health Medii App. Medii focuses on empowering individuals with learning disabilities and autism, caregivers, and the NHS with the tools they need to prioritise their health and well-being.
Some of the benefits of the app are:
– Record your mood, sleep, and more with regular reminders when you forget.
– Track your temperature, blood, and epilepsy and catch problems before they happen.
– Receive messages from medical staff.
Both these apps can be downloaded from your smartphone’s app store. We have not used either one of these apps, so we can not comment on how good or bad they are.
It was an insightful day, with lots of networking, and information sharing, and great to hear from individuals with a learning disability and autism.
They sure did empower us as a team reinforced our aim to do all that we can to support great self advocacy in Essex.
