Communication passport

Also called Personal communication passport, Communication profile, About me booklet

A few pages that tell a stranger how this person communicates, what helps and what to do, before anything goes wrong. Carried, not filed.

What it is

A communication passport is a short document, in the person's own voice, that tells someone who has never met them how they communicate. How I say yes and no. What my sounds and movements mean. How to talk to me. What upsets me. What to do if you can't understand me. Who knows me well.

It exists because the people who understand a person are not always in the room, and a new carer, a locum, a supply teacher or an A&E nurse needs to know in two minutes what the family took years to learn. Sally Millar at CALL Scotland developed the format in the early 1990s, and the name and the first-person style come from her.

Who it can help

Anyone whose communication isn't obvious to a stranger: people who use AAC, people with profound and multiple learning disabilities, people with dementia, autistic people, people with aphasia. It's essential at every handover: new school, respite, hospital admission, new staff.

It's different from a hospital passport, which is about health and care in hospital, and from a one-page profile, which is broader and shorter. Some people carry all three; more often the communication passport is folded into one of the others. What matters is that the communication section is written and travels.

How it works

The document is written as if the person is speaking: "I use a Talk board on my tablet. I point to a card and it speaks. Give me time; I'm slow but I'm accurate." Photographs help, including one of the person's system and one of them using it. It's usually four to eight pages, and short enough to read on the way to a meeting.

Sections that matter most: my yes and my no, in detail; what I do when I'm happy, in pain, frightened or tired; how to get my attention; my system, where it is and how to charge it; my low-tech backup; what never to do (hand-over-hand, shouting, finishing my sentences). And the names and numbers of the two people who know me best.

It's kept with the person, not in a filing cabinet, and updated at least yearly and after every big change. An out-of-date passport that says a person uses a device they abandoned two years ago does harm.

Getting started

Start with a single page: my yes, my no, my system, my backup, one thing never to do, one person to ring. That's enough to be useful tonight.

Write it with the person, and read it back to them. If they use a device, put their own words in.

Print two copies. One in the bag with the device, one with the hospital passport. Photograph it and keep it on your phone too.

Where to get help

CALL Scotland publishes the original guidance and templates. Communication Matters has resources for AAC users. Mencap and Sense provide templates for adults with a learning disability or sensory impairment. Your speech and language therapist should help write it as part of any AAC or communication plan, and for children with an EHCP it belongs with the communication provision.