The Journey of the Remarkable Roisin.
Roisin is a 28-year-old young woman who has a diagnosis of Moderate Learning
Difficulties, Dyspraxia and Epilepsy. She has an Acquired Brain Injury (Hypoxia), dysphagia and reduced mobility further to experiencing a prolonged seizure in 2017. From the time of the event until the start of the Covid Pandemic, Roisin was living in a treatment facility located over an hour and half away from her family home. Due to the risks and challenges that Covid presented, Roisin’s parents made the decision to bring her back home. At that point, a detailed transition plan had not been worked out and Roisin’s family knew there were formidable obstacles to overcome for a support team to be put in place so that this could be safely and successfully progressed.
With Roisin being back in the family home and cared for by her parents she made encouraging improvements. It was during this time that Roisin’s parents raised the question as to whether it would be possible for her to have a home of her own with a dedicated support team. Based upon her reputation and experience, their ‘first port of call’, was discussing this with, Helen Wilcox MBE, (Woodford’s founder), and months of intensive and detailed preparatory work followed taking Roisin increasingly towards greater autonomy.
From Blueprint to Reality
Wheels were set in motion- towards helping Roisin to achieve greater independence and a more fulfilling life.
This was Helen‘s mission and, along with her family, Roisin’s dream. However, this proved more challenging than navigating your way through the Hampton Court Palace maze. Fortunately however, Helen had some sage-like guides and a natural talent for negotiation, along with the benefit of knowing the ‘lay of the land’ and key people in the world of social care that put her in a very good place to map this amazing journey.
Under the direction of Helen a comprehensive Life Plan for Roisin was commissioned and a detailed review of different funding streams was undertaken to determine the maximum resources that were available to support Roisin’s future security, well-being and personal aims. In relation to this, Roisin’s parents had already obtained personal independence payment, mobility allowance, and other forms of financial support for their daughter whilst Helen investigated a comprehensive array of further funding sources, carrying out discussions of the applicability of these various options with identified professionals who were apprised of these issues and well placed to action decisions.
Practical steps were simultaneously being taken ‘on the ground’ that involved, finding a new home for Roisin, making the necessary adaptations ie., to her bathroom and bedroom and sourcing essential equipment such as hoists, an adjustable therapeutic bed and an adapted armchair to suit her needs.
From the outset, meetings were held with key people in Roisin’s life including her family and circle of support to create a robust and aspirational strategy that would provide a platform for working towards giving Roisin truly fulfilling life choices. This effort would run parallel with encouraging Roisin acquiring new skills and an associated evolving sense of self worth and wellbeing. Roisin and her family were also centrally involved in recruiting her day to day ‘dream team’ to maximise her opportunities to have a life that makes sense to her and directly addresses her happiness. Importantly, this enabled them to identify individuals to work with Roisin who had personalities, interests and attitudes towards life that chimed with Róisín’s perspectives.
One year on, Roisin now has her own flat, state of the art self operating electric wheelchair (that “Q” would be impressed with) and is being supported by a dedicated team of trained ‘At Home with Woodford’ staff. Notably during this time, Roisin has increasingly been able to express her wishes through her daily choices at home and in the community. For the family, Roisin’s sister summed up the progress made stating, “it’s like having the old Roisin back!”
Roisin is a vivacious, outgoing and bright-eyed young woman with a large network of friends and family near by who clearly care deeply about her. They describe her as fun loving, caring, compassionate with a fierce determination and wicked sense of humour. She loves dogs, helping people, rugby, music and being out and about regardless of the weather. She has travelled far and wide in her van and so enjoys visiting new places and events. Time with family is full of laughter and shared activities, something both Roisin, her parents and her siblings treasure.
Roisin can communicate. However much of this is physically restricted at this time, so people working with her have needed to work to improve their understanding in order to both meet her needs better and reduce unnecessary anxiety and frustration for Roisin. Roisin has good understanding of verbal communication from others but she needs time to process this information to respond. Those working with Roisin understand this and also make sure that what they communicate to her is appropriately specific, clear and, as required, instructive. This approach is used consistently by her staff team. Roisin has weekly vocal skills coaching to help empower her to make her own decisions and advance her communication skills. Roisin is assisted in her personal care with verbal encouragement, successive behavioural shaping, hand over hand support or staff carrying out the activity, with an overarching aim of promoting independence.
‘At Home with Woodford’ has made intensive efforts to create a team of individuals who possess the skills required to optimally support Roisin in experiencing a positive and empowering day to day life. This is dependent upon her team communicating effectively with her and focusing on all the things Roisin can feel good about being able to do and encouraging her to regain skills she previously possessed before her epileptic episode in 2017.
What is Supported Living, At Home with Woodford?
Vincent, Roisin’s Team Manager
In short, it is 24/7 care provided by a proactive, ‘hands on’ team of caring and supportive staff who are selected specifically to work with each client on either a one to one basis or two to one as needed. Ultimately, it is about helping those we support to have more independence and choice in their lives while allowing them to live within the communities they wish to reside in, alongside those they care about.
Whatever our client’s needs, we work with them, their family and friends as well as professional support teams to provide a dedicated, full time supported living service which is collaboratively crafted. This allows us to deliver support that is centred upon not only the individual’s needs but also their preferences, views, independence requirements and wishes with regard to access to their community. We work to empower the people we support and their families to actively participate in the staff recruitment process to achieve a mix of personalities, skills and interests in their team that will best suit individuals receiving our support.
How did you plan for Roisin’s transition to Independent Living with ‘At home with Woodford’?
Mandy & Brendon, Roisin’s Parents:
The impact of Covid presented us with both a need and opportunity to ensure Roisin was safe by bringing her home from the facility that had been providing her care post trauma in 2017. Equally, it allowed us to more closely gauge her progress when we began providing her 24/7 care. We were beginning to think differently about the future for Roisin so “phoned a friend” and asked the question, “would it be possible for our daughter to live independently in her own home?” There had been limited advice and guidance on offer in respect any clear process of such a transition until we contacted Woodford. Helen Wilcox, their CEO listened to our hopes and dreams about a more positive future for Roisin that her previous institutional life could not offer. We knew she was inherently bright, knowledgeable and connected with a wide array of people who were motivated to collaborate and create a rich ‘Life Plan’ that underpinned the evolution of Roisin’s package of care and support. Importantly, this was significantly enhanced by, though not predominantly reliant upon, family support. This allowed us, as family, to secure her future and better ensure that her siblings could have authentic relationships with Roisin without worries about having the responsibility of bearing the burden of caring for for their sister. Our extended family and social connections relished the opportunity to be a part of such a dream for Roisin’s future with Woodford providing the direction and expertise to take this forward.
What were your priorities for Roisin’s Transition?
Vincent
The most important thing was getting the right home and support team for Roisin. Woodford secured transition funding from the Local Authority which was vital. It meant we could recruit her staff team well in advance and create a ‘Getting To Know You’ period with staff spending time with Roisin in the family home, which helped her to adjust and relax as much as possible during this major period of adjustment for her. We also involved Roisin as an active participant in this process, to the level of her abilities, as we know that theses steps substantially enhance the prospects of a smooth and successful service transition. It meant there was time for both Roisin and her family to view her flat and the local area to get comfortable with this and to address any questions with them that they might have, as to whether it was the right living arrangement for her.
We see consistency as key and as a support team, we make sure our communication is really robust and thorough, so that colleagues coming on shift are in the zone and maintain the same priorities by conveying all necessary information to effectively ‘pass the baton’ to those taking over providing for Roisin’s care, support and positive wellbeing. As such there are no ‘cracks’ or ‘hiccups’ in our staff engagement on behalf of Roisin and this is achieved through detailed handover communications, active whatsapp groups, regular team meetings and a range of other strategies to help us maintain maximum support consistency and client attunement.
Mandy
It’s all about getting the right staff at the end of the day. Staff who are going to get on well with Roisin and support as well as motivate her to try new things. As parents, we did get involved in the interviewing of new staff. That was very helpful and I’m happy to say that Roisin has some fantastic staff – some of whom can get her to do and try things that we as his family cannot! We’ve come to believe that staff with the right personality and initiative can actually be better suited for Roisin than some who may look better on paper.
Further Advice- Mandy
Talk and learn from other families who have had similar experience, visit different services, participate as much as you can in recruitment of the right staff and stay in the mix with activity planning to continue supporting your loved one.
What is in store for Roisin?
Vincent
You’d be better asking Roisin that! But in general I would say that we don’t yet know if her flat is her ‘forever home’ or a stepping stone to something else. Roisin is so much more independent around dealing with her own needs and we are working to help her to to extend this independence to other aspects of daily life, like travelling, managing her own diary, etc.
Mandy
A happy and fulfilling life!- is what most everyone wants and for Roisin the door to this opportunity is continuing to open up.
Helen:
For me our successes have been directly related to:
Roisin is a 28-year-old young woman who has a diagnosis of Moderate Learning
Difficulties, Dyspraxia and Epilepsy. She has an Acquired Brain Injury (Hypoxia), dysphagia and reduced mobility further to experiencing a prolonged seizure in 2017. From the time of the event until the start of the Covid Pandemic, Roisin was living in a treatment facility located over an hour and half away from her family home. Due to the risks and challenges that Covid presented, Roisin’s parents made the decision to bring her back home. At that point, a detailed transition plan had not been worked out and Roisin’s family knew there were formidable obstacles to overcome for a support team to be put in place so that this could be safely and successfully progressed.
With Roisin being back in the family home and cared for by her parents she made encouraging improvements. It was during this time that Roisin’s parents raised the question as to whether it would be possible for her to have a home of her own with a dedicated support team. Based upon her reputation and experience, their ‘first port of call’, was discussing this with, Helen Wilcox MBE, (Woodford’s founder), and months of intensive and detailed preparatory work followed taking Roisin increasingly towards greater autonomy.
From Blueprint to Reality
Wheels were set in motion- towards helping Roisin to achieve greater independence and a more fulfilling life.
This was Helen‘s mission and, along with her family, Roisin’s dream. However, this proved more challenging than navigating your way through the Hampton Court Palace maze. Fortunately however, Helen had some sage-like guides and a natural talent for negotiation, along with the benefit of knowing the ‘lay of the land’ and key people in the world of social care that put her in a very good place to map this amazing journey.
Under the direction of Helen a comprehensive Life Plan for Roisin was commissioned and a detailed review of different funding streams was undertaken to determine the maximum resources that were available to support Roisin’s future security, well-being and personal aims. In relation to this, Roisin’s parents had already obtained personal independence payment, mobility allowance, and other forms of financial support for their daughter whilst Helen investigated a comprehensive array of further funding sources, carrying out discussions of the applicability of these various options with identified professionals who were apprised of these issues and well placed to action decisions.
Practical steps were simultaneously being taken ‘on the ground’ that involved, finding a new home for Roisin, making the necessary adaptations ie., to her bathroom and bedroom and sourcing essential equipment such as hoists, an adjustable therapeutic bed and an adapted armchair to suit her needs.
From the outset, meetings were held with key people in Roisin’s life including her family and circle of support to create a robust and aspirational strategy that would provide a platform for working towards giving Roisin truly fulfilling life choices. This effort would run parallel with encouraging Roisin acquiring new skills and an associated evolving sense of self worth and wellbeing. Roisin and her family were also centrally involved in recruiting her day to day ‘dream team’ to maximise her opportunities to have a life that makes sense to her and directly addresses her happiness. Importantly, this enabled them to identify individuals to work with Roisin who had personalities, interests and attitudes towards life that chimed with Róisín’s perspectives.
One year on, Roisin now has her own flat, state of the art self operating electric wheelchair (that “Q” would be impressed with) and is being supported by a dedicated team of trained ‘At Home with Woodford’ staff. Notably during this time, Roisin has increasingly been able to express her wishes through her daily choices at home and in the community. For the family, Roisin’s sister summed up the progress made stating, “it’s like having the old Roisin back!”
Roisin is a vivacious, outgoing and bright-eyed young woman with a large network of friends and family near by who clearly care deeply about her. They describe her as fun loving, caring, compassionate with a fierce determination and wicked sense of humour. She loves dogs, helping people, rugby, music and being out and about regardless of the weather. She has travelled far and wide in her van and so enjoys visiting new places and events. Time with family is full of laughter and shared activities, something both Roisin, her parents and her siblings treasure.
Roisin can communicate. However much of this is physically restricted at this time, so people working with her have needed to work to improve their understanding in order to both meet her needs better and reduce unnecessary anxiety and frustration for Roisin. Roisin has good understanding of verbal communication from others but she needs time to process this information to respond. Those working with Roisin understand this and also make sure that what they communicate to her is appropriately specific, clear and, as required, instructive. This approach is used consistently by her staff team. Roisin has weekly vocal skills coaching to help empower her to make her own decisions and advance her communication skills. Roisin is assisted in her personal care with verbal encouragement, successive behavioural shaping, hand over hand support or staff carrying out the activity, with an overarching aim of promoting independence.
‘At Home with Woodford’ has made intensive efforts to create a team of individuals who possess the skills required to optimally support Roisin in experiencing a positive and empowering day to day life. This is dependent upon her team communicating effectively with her and focusing on all the things Roisin can feel good about being able to do and encouraging her to regain skills she previously possessed before her epileptic episode in 2017.
What is Supported Living, At Home with Woodford?
Vincent, Roisin’s Team Manager
In short, it is 24/7 care provided by a proactive, ‘hands on’ team of caring and supportive staff who are selected specifically to work with each client on either a one to one basis or two to one as needed. Ultimately, it is about helping those we support to have more independence and choice in their lives while allowing them to live within the communities they wish to reside in, alongside those they care about.
Whatever our client’s needs, we work with them, their family and friends as well as professional support teams to provide a dedicated, full time supported living service which is collaboratively crafted. This allows us to deliver support that is centred upon not only the individual’s needs but also their preferences, views, independence requirements and wishes with regard to access to their community. We work to empower the people we support and their families to actively participate in the staff recruitment process to achieve a mix of personalities, skills and interests in their team that will best suit individuals receiving our support.
How did you plan for Roisin’s transition to Independent Living with ‘At home with Woodford’?
Mandy & Brendon, Roisin’s Parents:
The impact of Covid presented us with both a need and opportunity to ensure Roisin was safe by bringing her home from the facility that had been providing her care post trauma in 2017. Equally, it allowed us to more closely gauge her progress when we began providing her 24/7 care. We were beginning to think differently about the future for Roisin so “phoned a friend” and asked the question, “would it be possible for our daughter to live independently in her own home?” There had been limited advice and guidance on offer in respect any clear process of such a transition until we contacted Woodford. Helen Wilcox, their CEO listened to our hopes and dreams about a more positive future for Roisin that her previous institutional life could not offer. We knew she was inherently bright, knowledgeable and connected with a wide array of people who were motivated to collaborate and create a rich ‘Life Plan’ that underpinned the evolution of Roisin’s package of care and support. Importantly, this was significantly enhanced by, though not predominantly reliant upon, family support. This allowed us, as family, to secure her future and better ensure that her siblings could have authentic relationships with Roisin without worries about having the responsibility of bearing the burden of caring for for their sister. Our extended family and social connections relished the opportunity to be a part of such a dream for Roisin’s future with Woodford providing the direction and expertise to take this forward.
What were your priorities for Roisin’s Transition?
Vincent
The most important thing was getting the right home and support team for Roisin. Woodford secured transition funding from the Local Authority which was vital. It meant we could recruit her staff team well in advance and create a ‘Getting To Know You’ period with staff spending time with Roisin in the family home, which helped her to adjust and relax as much as possible during this major period of adjustment for her. We also involved Roisin as an active participant in this process, to the level of her abilities, as we know that theses steps substantially enhance the prospects of a smooth and successful service transition. It meant there was time for both Roisin and her family to view her flat and the local area to get comfortable with this and to address any questions with them that they might have, as to whether it was the right living arrangement for her.
We see consistency as key and as a support team, we make sure our communication is really robust and thorough, so that colleagues coming on shift are in the zone and maintain the same priorities by conveying all necessary information to effectively ‘pass the baton’ to those taking over providing for Roisin’s care, support and positive wellbeing. As such there are no ‘cracks’ or ‘hiccups’ in our staff engagement on behalf of Roisin and this is achieved through detailed handover communications, active whatsapp groups, regular team meetings and a range of other strategies to help us maintain maximum support consistency and client attunement.
Mandy
It’s all about getting the right staff at the end of the day. Staff who are going to get on well with Roisin and support as well as motivate her to try new things. As parents, we did get involved in the interviewing of new staff. That was very helpful and I’m happy to say that Roisin has some fantastic staff – some of whom can get her to do and try things that we as his family cannot! We’ve come to believe that staff with the right personality and initiative can actually be better suited for Roisin than some who may look better on paper.
Further Advice- Mandy
Talk and learn from other families who have had similar experience, visit different services, participate as much as you can in recruitment of the right staff and stay in the mix with activity planning to continue supporting your loved one.
What is in store for Roisin?
Vincent
You’d be better asking Roisin that! But in general I would say that we don’t yet know if her flat is her ‘forever home’ or a stepping stone to something else. Roisin is so much more independent around dealing with her own needs and we are working to help her to to extend this independence to other aspects of daily life, like travelling, managing her own diary, etc.
Mandy
A happy and fulfilling life!- is what most everyone wants and for Roisin the door to this opportunity is continuing to open up.
Helen:
For me our successes have been directly related to:
- Having a staff team recruited in advance and getting to know Roisin by spending time with Roisin in her family home.
- Undertaking a careful and detailed Functional Behaviour Analysis around Roisin’s routines, habits and interests as this has helped staff to understand Roisin’s abilities and goals.
- Supporting Roisin and her family in having periods of time in her flat and in the immediate surroundings before her move.
- Helping the family to make important community links to promote an enriching and responsive local support network
- Providing bespoke guidance to the family to support their loved one in exploring the provisions of the Care Act (2018) to help them to maximise resources towards achieving this key aim.
- Ultimately, the best measuring stick for success has to do with supporting people with complex needs to exert control over their own lives, enabling them to live ordinary, sometimes messy, but personally fulfilling lives in the same communities as everyone else.
Take a peek at Roisin enjoying one of her pre-accident pastimes once again with the support of Woodford Homecare,
Person Centred Services by us for you
At Woodford we endeavour to provide person centred care and assistance to people who:
● Need full time support in their own homes ● Have profound or moderate learning difficulties or autism ● Have profound or moderate physical disabilities ● Have complex health needs ● Present with behaviours that may impede their development |
We also work to help individuals to transition:
● From assessment and treatment units as well as primary care services ● From home or residential schools and other placements for young adults ● From other settings where individuals are ready to move to a less restrictive and more personally empowering living arrangement. |