Summary
What Hospital Passports are and how to use them.
A Hospital Passport is a short 2-4 page document designed to help autistic people communicate their needs to doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals. It is sometimes also referred to as a Health Passport.
The idea is that if you, or your child, has to go into a hospital this one small document will explain all their basic needs: their sensory needs, their communication needs, and how they express pain. You know basically everything someone needs to know to treat them.
I have a hospital passport myself, and mine is only two pages. My suggestion is you use the below links as a guide and make yours shorter or simply remove needed sections from the below templates.
Having taught a many care staff I hear them tell me over and over that “healthcare professionals don’t look at them”. This is why I advise making them as short and to the point as possible and physically handing them to them at the point of contact. I’d also suggest making them solution-focused for example rather than just saying “sound hurts his/my ears” say “sound hurts his/my ears and so I need to wear headphones”. That way you’re giving them the solution to the issue.
Here’s the NHS one:
https://www.royalfree.nhs.uk/patients-visitors/disabled-facilities/patients-with-a-learning-disability/hospital-passport/
Here’s The National Autistic Society’s one:
https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/physical-health/my-health-passport
If you want to hear more from me you can check out my YouTube here: youtube.com/@LorenSnow and my website here: www.lorensnow.com
