“I can’t walk in your shoes but I can walk alongside you.” The words of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital’s Chief Executive Lesley Dwyer as she formally launched the hospital’s Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Strategy.
Staff, volunteers and outside organisations worked together to create the strategy, which has now been formally launched.
The strategy launch was followed by a panel discussion which tackled a number of issues including:
- Understanding the support needed for patients and staff who are neuro-divergent
- Are there things that can be done to help patients with neuro-divergence such as the ‘quiet hours’ that happen in supermarkets?
- Helping people understand more about harassment and how to act on it.
- What signposting is available to patients and staff who may need more help and advice.
- Ensuring policies to help diversity, inclusion and belonging are used in practice and are not just a paper exercise.
- Making sure people from different communities and groups understand the needs and perceptions of each other so they can work more closely together to create an even-more inclusive environment for everyone within the hospital.
