Autism Spectrum Disorder

Cygnet has over 20 years’ experience of delivering the best outcomes for individuals with autism and learning disabilities, who may present with behaviours that challenge. We offer low secure and rehabilitation services across 5 different locations in the UK.

Alongside our interventions to reduce maladaptive behaviours, our aim is to help the individuals we support to develop life skills and progress through their care pathway to achieve further independence.

We have collaboratively created our model of care based on an integrated approach whereby family, service users, commissioners and carers are all involved in the rehabilitation and recovery of the individual.

Cygnet has committed to the STOMP pledge – STOMP stands for Stopping the over-medication of adults and young people with a Learning Disability, Autism or both.

It is a health campaign that aims to improve the quality of life of people with a learning disability, autism or both by supporting providers to ensure they only receive psychotropic medication for the right reasons and in the right amount.

The aims of STOMP are to:

encourage people to have regular check-ups about their medicines
make sure doctors and other health professionals involve people, families and support staff in decisions about medicines
inform everyone about non-drug therapies and practical ways of supporting people so they are less likely to need as much medicine, if any.

It is estimated by Public Health England that on an average day in England between 30,000 and 35,000 people with a learning disability, autism or both are prescribed psychotropic medication without an appropriate clinical justification.

These medicines are right for some people. They can help people stay safe and well. Sometimes there are other ways of helping people so they need less medicine or none at all.

NHS England and other sector stakeholders have developed the STOMP pledge for health care providers. This is about all health care providers improving the use of psychotropic medicine, offering non-drug therapies and making sure that people, families and staff are fully informed and involved.

Cygnet’s commitment to the pledge is driven by our aim of improving the quality of life for the individuals we support who live with a learning disability, autism or both.
We will continue to work with our staff through education, awareness raising and training to ensure that people only receive psychotropic medication for the right reasons and in the right quantity.

Find out more about STOMP on the NHS England website.

To ensure we cater for each person’s journey and achieve long-term results, we have created a unique approach to care for individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

myPath is our overarching care model that monitors service user engagement levels, manages their records, assesses their progress and formulates a personalised and dynamic care plan with measurable targets. The model embraces a wide range of evidence-based tools such as pharmaceutical inputs, daily living skills, progressive community-based outcomes and risk management plans. In doing the above, myPath ensures the delivery of high quality and inclusive care that is continually evaluated through robust operational and clinical governance frameworks.

myPath is tried and trusted and delivers industry-leading results.

We use a number of tools to measure the progress and outcomes of the people in our care: