Raising awareness of autistic spectrum disorders for healthcare assistants

This article provides an insight for healthcare assistants (HCAs) who may have limited knowledge of the implications of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) for their everyday practice working with patients and their families and carers. The role of HCAs in this context is invaluable in providing compassion, support and much–needed reassurance in the different contexts within which healthcare is delivered. This article provides a basic overview of what the common presentations of ASD are and this is framed in an understanding of why a key consideration for patients living with the condition and their families and carers is where care is provided. Via raising awareness of how adaptations to HCA practice might best be made to facilitate high–quality care, the paper simultaneously raises the need for holistic management of a very vulnerable patient caseload. The article ends by facilitating HCAs in reflecting on their level of existing knowledge of autism and how they might better apply this in practice with patients living with the everyday challenges of ASD.