Inclusive Crisis Alternatives – Developing the workforce to deliver services that meet the needs of people, who are neurodivergent or have a learning difficulty, including those from minoritised communities.

What are the aims of the project?

The project is a piece of research commissioned by and working closely with NHS England. The research will look at what training staff in crisis alternative services need to offer the best support possible to all people in crisis.

The crisis alternative workforce is made up of services in the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector. These services support people in crisis, as alternatives to A&E and other public healthcare options.

In particular, the project focuses on the training staff need to meet the needs of people who are neurodivergent, particularly autistic people and people with ADHD, and/or people who have a learning difficulty.

Can I get involved with the project? If so, how?

We welcome input from people, who are neurodivergent and/or have a learning-difficulty and have used crisis services or feel like they may need to use one at some point.

We are also interested in the views of people who find crisis alternative services difficult to access or use for any other reasons. This includes people who, when trying to access support, may face barriers related to their culture, age, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, or other experiences e.g. of homelessness, migration, caring responsibilities etc. As part of this project, we want to better understand how services can reduce barriers to ensure everyone can get support they need.

We also welcome input from staff working in crisis alternative services.

As of May 2025, we will be running questionnaires to help us understand the kinds of training staff need to offer the very best support possible. Please scroll down to find out more and take part.

Get in Touch

Please contact Tracey via email wherever possible: research@TouchstoneSupport.org.uk.

If you have a preference or need for calls over email, please call Tracey on the below phone number:

Call: 07484 911048.

Meet the Team

Tracey Hemmerdinger, Crisis Workforce Development Lead

Taking Part in Our Questionnaires

As part of our research, we are running questionnaires to help us understand what training staff need to better support neurodivergent people and people with learning difficulties when they are in crisis. All of our questionnaires have been designed with Experts by Experience, who are neurodivergent and/or have learning difficulties.

There are four questionnaires:

  • one for adults
  • one for children and young people
  • one for parents and carers
  • and one for staff working in crisis alternative services.

We ask that each person only answer one questionnaire. Please take a look below to see which questionnaire is the right one for you.

This questionnaire is for you if you consider yourself to be a neurodivergent adult (18+) or an adult with learning difficulties. 18-25 year olds can choose to do this questionnaire or the one for children and young people. Please only do one.

This questionnaire is for you if you are a parent or carer of a child or young person (under 25) who is neurodivergent or has learning difficulties.

This questionnaire is for you if you are a young person (under 25) and are neurodivergent or have learning difficulties. If you are 18 or over, you may wish to compete the form for adults instead. Please only complete one.

This questionnaire is for you if you work in a voluntary sector organisation with people of any age in mental health crisis. It may also be completed by workers in statutory services, where the service is trying to avoid admission and could be delivered by any sector, for example Dynamic Support Register (DSR) Keyworkers.

Tracey has also created a Video Introduction to Taking Part in our Questionnaires. Take a look here.

Information about taking part in our questionnaires

The questionnaires do ask questions about what you need in a mental health crisis. Please make sure you have someone you can talk to in case this upsets you in any way. If you need to speak to someone Samaritans operate a 24/7 phoneline – you can call them on 116123  or text ‘SHOUT’ to 85258 for text support.

All your answers will be kept confidential. The only reason to give us your email address is if you choose to be entered in our prize draw (please see questionnaires for more details). For more information on how we look after your information, please read our privacy notice below.

If you need any support with accessing the questionnaires, please contact Tracey at research@touchstonesupport.org.uk

How we look after your information

Touchstone is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy and keeping your information secure. If you take part in one of our questionnaires as part of this  project, all of your information will be kept confidential.

To read more about how we look after your information in this research project, please download our privacy notices below:

By providing us with your information and agreeing to this privacy notice, you are giving us your consent to process your information. If you do not consent, please do not participate in the research or project.

Frequently Asked Questions

There is a real need to offer people alternatives to being admitted to hospital and provide more support in the community. Recent events, such as the Darzi report into the NHS and the review of the Mental Health Act, have emphasised this need.

There are many people in hospital, who wouldn’t need to be if support was available in the community. This can often be the case for people who are neurodivergent and people who have a learning difficulty.

The NHS is committed to investing in VCSE services to support people in the community. They need to know what training and support staff need to deliver excellent services for everyone. This piece of research will provide NHS England with that information.

The research will take place during May-June 2025 and the results will form a report to be ready early 2026.

The project is looking at services for all ages. We are particularly keen to look at barriers for those who are transitioning between children’s and adult services.

We would like to include the following services:

  • Any service in the VCSE sector, which works with people in mental health crisis. This includes crisis hubs or cafes, crisis houses, mental health helplines (not including 111), and other crisis support services.
  • Any services that work with people who are neurodivergent and/or people who have a learning difficulty.
  • Services that work with people who often find it hard to access mainstream provision. This could include people who, when trying to access support, face barriers related to their culture, age, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, or other experiences i.e. of homelessness, migration, caring responsibilities etc.

The research is across the whole of the North East and Yorkshire region of NHS England. This includes West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and the Humber, and the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) districts.

A learning difficulty is defined by the NHS as “a type of special educational need which affects areas of learning”. This includes conditions such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

A learning disability is defined by the NHS as “a significantly reduced ability to understand new or complex information, to learn new skills (impaired intelligence), with a reduced ability to cope independently (impaired social functioning), which started before adulthood.” This piece of work does not cover people with a learning disability as it does not have the resources to do so.

Person-first vs. identity-first language

When describing people we are working with in this project, we have carefully considered the language we use. This includes choosing between using people-first or identity-first language to describe people with different experiences. Below we have explained some of our reasoning behind our language choices:

Autistic people – We have chosen to use identity-first language here, as this description is preferred by most autistic people. This is because most autistic people see being autistic as integral to who they are, not as something they ‘have’. While we will use these terms for our research project, we realise that some autistic people we work with may prefer people-first language (i.e. people with autism) and we will always refer to individuals using the language they prefer to describe themselves.

Disabled people – We have chosen to use this language to reflect the ‘social model of disability’. The social model says that it’s not someone’s condition or impairment that disables them but the barriers created by society. The term ‘disabled people’ reflects this. NHS England and charities working with disabled people like Scope advise to use this term.

In most other cases, we will use people-first language i.e. people with ADHD, people with a learning difficulty.

Other language choices 

Throughout the project, we will refer to Experts by Experience to describe people who bring lived experience of using crisis services and/or of identifying with a particular group or community. The term Experts by Experience highlights the valued expertise that this lived experience brings.