When my son Oliver died in intensive care in 2016, I was determined what happened to him should never happen to anyone else. Hospitalised earlier for seizures, he was given medication in hospital he (and we) had told staff he should not receive. It caused his brain to swell, and he never recovered from the effects.
It has been a long battle, but last year mandatory training for health and care staff in how to work with people with autism and learning disabilities was passed into law with the health and care act (2022). Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism is the standardised training that was developed for this purpose and is the government’s preferred and recommended training for health and social care staff.
But our fight isn’t over. Last week, we launched a petition calling for a new law that would require all staff in educational settings from early years to universities also to be trained on learning disability and autism.
