Guides

Useful guides for the bits nobody explains

Practical, patient-side guides to hospital, treatment, packing, visiting and getting through the weeks afterwards. Written from the bed and the bedside chair — no wellness language, no lectures, just the things we wish somebody had told us first time round.

Accessibility in hospitalGoing into hospital when you’re autistic — a visual storyAn adult visual guide to things you might see, hear and experience in hospital, with photographs, optional sounds and practical ways to explain your needs.Read this guide
Accessibility in hospitalThe ADHDer’s guide to surviving hospitalPractical, patient-written help for ADHD in hospital: waiting, boredom, changing plans, remembering questions, nights on the ward and asking for adjustments.Read this guide
Accessibility in hospitalTell the hospital what you needHow to explain your needs in hospital, ask for reasonable adjustments and use hospital passports or simple staff sheets. Includes NHS and autism resources.Read this guide
Hospital staff sheetThings that might help me in hospitalA free printable sheet to tell hospital staff what might help with communication, touch, noise, waiting and overwhelm. Open, print or share without downloading.Read this guide
Hospital staff sheetADHD in hospital — things that might help meA free ADHD hospital staff sheet covering waiting, movement, changing plans, information and overwhelm. Choose what helps, then print or share.Read this guide
Hospital packingRight. You've been told to pack a hospital bag.What to grab in a hurry, what can wait, and the fuller list for a planned or longer stay.Read this guide
A practical visitor's guideWhat to bring someone in hospital — and what to leave at homeHow to turn a kind instinct into something they'll genuinely use, without the awkward hamper moment.Read this guide
Patient-written guideAn unplanned hospital admission: what to expect and what to bringNobody packs for this one. You go in wearing whatever you stood up in, with a phone that was never charged for a long day, and the first useful thing anybody can do is work out what needs to arrive tonight and what can wait until tomorrow.Read this guide
Patient-written guideFeeling comfortable and human in hospitalHospital strips away an enormous number of small ordinary things at once: your own clothes, your own bathroom, your own bedtime. Getting a few of them back is not vanity. It is usually the difference between feeling like a person and feeling like a patient.Read this guide
Patient-written guideDay surgery: what to expect and what actually helpsDay surgery sounds wonderfully efficient. In at seven, home by teatime.Read this guide
Patient-written guideOvernight or short stay: what to pack for one or two nightsOne night in hospital sounds so brief that people often pack for it as though they are nipping to a Travelodge.Read this guide
Patient-written guideA longer hospital stay: making a ward liveable when you are there for a whileAfter a few days in hospital, the things that seemed trivial on day one stop feeling trivial.Read this guide
Patient-written guideTreatment or infusion day: practical things that make a long day easierTreatment days have their own rhythm.Read this guide
Patient-written guideRecovery at home: getting through the first days and weeksDischarge is not the finish line.Read this guide
Patient-written guideCaring for someone at home: practical ways to make life easierCaring for someone at home is a strange job because nobody really hands you the job description.Read this guide
Patient-written guideSleep & noise in hospital: getting some rest on a wardWards do not really do “night”.Read this guide
Patient-written guideWashing, grooming & feeling human in hospitalThere is a point in hospital where a proper wash stops being a basic life task and starts feeling like an event.Read this guide
Patient-written guideClothing & mobility in hospital: what is actually easier to wearHospital clothes need to do a job.Read this guide
Patient-written guideBoredom & distraction in hospital: what works when your concentration is shotHospital boredom is not ordinary boredom.Read this guide
Patient-written guideTech & entertainment in hospital: keeping the useful stuff charged and usableHospital tech has one job: make life easier.Read this guide
Patient-written guideDrinking & dry mouth: small things that make it easierDrinking is one of those things that sounds completely straightforward until you are ill.Read this guide
Patient-written guideOrganisation & advocacy: keeping track when hospital moves fastHospital creates a ridiculous amount of information for a place where you are often tired, frightened, interrupted and wearing pyjamas.Read this guide
Patient-written guideHow to be useful when someone’s illWhen somebody you care about is ill, there is an awful urge to do something.Read this guide
Packing emergencyShe said 'my nice pyjamas'.A bloke's guide to packing the hospital bag, for anyone standing helplessly in front of someone else's wardrobe.Read this guide

More are on the way — we only put a guide up once a human has properly read it back.