Using co-created video stories to support more equitable healthcare interactions for families of autistic children with learning disabilities

Abstract BACKGROUND Autistic children with learning disabilities have poor health outcomes and increased mortality compared to other groups, with poorer healthcare experiences. Time for Autism (TfA) is an educational intervention supporting trainee doctors to better understand and empathise with this group. Digital Story-making is a method for families of autistic children with learning disability (LD) to create positive video narratives to support more neuroaffirmative ways of engaging with professionals. OBJECTIVE We investigated the feasibility of Digital Stories to enhance the TfA intervention in supporting better understanding of the needs of this group. METHODS Three families of autistic children with LD were supported to create short Digital Stories to share with medical students visiting them in the TfA intervention. Students also created Digital Stories. Three family members and two students were interviewed to gauge the potential effects of using such stories to facilitate engagement between the groups . RESULTS Ten themes highlighted that the stories supported authentic representation of family perspectives, supported a more holistic view, powerfully supplemented written reports, presented implicit and contextual information to support better health provision, enabled parent reflection and neuroaffirmative approaches and increased reciprocity in medical interactions. Students appreciated advantages for learning and pre-visit familiarisation and suggested procedural changes for story creation by professionals. CONCLUSIONS Co-creating digital stories is a feasible way for enhancing client voice in healthcare interactions and for professional learning. They can also provide powerful guidance, both general and tailored, for adapting medical environments to better support health needs of autistic children with LD.