Care access issues for young Disabled people

In 2024, YOL! reached out to the local community to understand the experiences of young people living with a Disability when trying to access NHS and social care services.  We created a short survey for people to fill out and took this survey to two local schools / colleges to speak directly to students. The survey was made available online for young people, parents, carers and other professionals to fill out. To accompany the findings of the survey as well as previous feedback held by Healthwatch Kingston YOL! interviewed parents and one young person to better understand their experiences.

YOL! learnt about challenges that people face when trying to access specialist services, the difficulties of having a intermittent Disability, juggling supporting a whole family, issues with dual diagnosis and more. 

From the findings YOL! recorded a podcast on 'Accessing NHS and social care services for young people living with a Disability'.  The podcast and interviews are available below.  

Podcast. YOL! discuss what we have learnt and see as the key learnings from the survey, interview and more.

This series of interviews, produced by Healthwatch Kingston contains the views and opinions of local residents about care access issues for young Disabled people, and should not be considered the official position of Healthwatch Kingston. 

If you would like to talk to us about anything discussed in this series, please get in touch by emailing info@healthwatchkingston.org.uk.

Interview 1. YOL! discuss transitioning from children to adult services, dual-diagnosis, not being able to say the word 'spastic', accessing services that are not local and more.

Interview 2. YOL! discuss intermittent Disability, wheelchair hire and physically accessing services.

Interview 3. YOL! discuss dual diagnosis, chasing a diagnosis, accessing specialist support and more.