Evaluation of autism awareness training provided to staff working in a high secure psychiatric care hospital

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate autism awareness training provided to staff working in a high secure psychiatric care (HSPC) hospital. Design/methodology/approach An online survey of staff views who had completed an autism awareness training day. Findings All staff who completed the evaluation questionnaire reported that an autism awareness training day had been useful and had increased their knowledge of how to work with individuals who have autism. However, most staff also reported that one day was not long enough and that more case discussion would have been helpful. Although most staff also reported that autism awareness training should be mandatory, motivation to attend such training was considered important. In terms of the number of staff who had completed the training, whilst a wide range of staff groups had attended training, only a minority had done so, with the number of staff completing the training each year remaining relatively constant over a five-year period. Research limitations/implications Within the context of promoting Enabling Environments in forensic settings and the recent government consultation paper exploring whether autism awareness training should be mandatory for all those working in health care, further investigation is required into how to increase staff motivation to attend autism awareness training and to explore how it is used during everyday work with patients. Originality/value As an initial evaluation of optional autism awareness training delivered in HSPC, the project offers some valuable information in terms of the number of staff who attend such training, what they find useful and how it might be improved for this setting.