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Peter's Journey to COVID-19 Vaccination
Peter is a young man living with Learning Disabilities, Autism and queried Prader Willi Syndrome. He is non-verbal and uses gestures, pictures, or an iPad to communicate.
Our team of carers are unable to wear full PPE around Peter as this makes him incredibly anxious and he would seriously harm himself to communicate his fears of such equipment being used. Due to his trepidation of medical interventions, Peter would not tolerate hospital or medical support if he were to contract Covid-19. This, combined with the fact he is more susceptible to the virus and has been assessed as lacking in decision-making capacity, led Peters doctor, parents and support team to agree it was in his best interests to have the Covid-19 vaccine.
Reasonable adjustments were made for Peter to receive his vaccination, helping him to stay calm and make the process less stressful. Peter's mum and dad agreed to meet our support team separately at the vaccination centre and we arranged for the nurse to vaccinate Peter in the staff van. Whilst Peter’s dad sat in the back row of the van with his son and distracted him with some snacks, our staff opened the vans’ back doors so that the nurse could access Peter’s arm from behind.
After 2 attempts the vaccination was successful. Peter’s parents gave their son a hug and our support team told Peter how super proud of him they were as he had never had any vaccine or interventions as such up to this point.
Our support team also had a plan in place should Peter have any side effects, which mum and dad were also aware of. Thankfully, Peter was absolutely fine with no known side effects present.
