Complex Health Care: Meet Emily
Emily is a 20 year old lady we support within our specialist support Teams for complex Healthcare needs in Lancashire.
Hours: Emily is supported on a 6 day per week basis, eight hours Monday to Friday and seven hours on a Saturday.
Support Needs: Emily has Charge Syndrome, which manifests itself in a severe learning disability, mobility needs and a visual impairment. Emily has no verbal communication skills, is doubly incontinent and requires a PEG for the administration of all nutrition and specific interventions around body positioning whilst receiving nutrition via this method. Emily is able to walk short distances but uses a wheelchair otherwise and has a walking programme for staff to follow, designed by our Physiotherapist to ensure staff encourage her to walk and facilitate it correctly.
Communication: Although Emily is unable to verbalise her thoughts and feelings, she is a very intentional communicator and is very forthright in this respect. She uses visual cues, gestures and touch and it is essential that staff are responsive to Emily’s unique form of communication and encourage further development in this area, as she will abandon any attempt otherwise and withdraw. Emily’s staff team are responsive to changes in posture and facial expression as an indication of her mood, what she likes and doesn’t like, what works and doesn’t work.
Activities: Emily’s day starts at the family home in a morning, from which her Support Worker will drive Emily’s own mobility vehicle and drop her off of an evening. Sometimes she is ready when her support worker arrives in a morning, other times when she may have had a restless night or mum isn’t feeling too well, Emily’s Support Worker will help her to get up, attend to her nutrition and personal care and support her through her morning routine – this flexibility allows us to truly support Emily and her mum as and when they need it.
Emily is a lively young lady who enjoys swimming – Emily has a particular love of water and undertakes at least one water-based activity per day, whether from a shower, hydropool or the organisation’s on-site Jacuzzi – multi-sensory work, massage and getting out and about doing anything from trampolining to carriage driving.
What works for Emily: as with all people supported within our specialist teams, Emily has her own ‘core group’ of staff – this is a team comprised of staff members assigned specifically to support Emily and ensures that she is never supported by someone with whom she isn’t familiar. This staffing structure enables a consistency of approach and the establishment of trusting relationships between Emily and her staff team and allows us to detect any behavioural patterns and changes in healthcare needs.
Emily benefits from one to one staffing to ensure she is able to partake in the activities that she enjoys – within her week there are planned activities within a group setting however her participation and engagement needs constant facilitation by her one to one staff member.
Outcomes – Emily’s parents are so pleased with her progression that they have elected for Emily to use our respite service, despite the fact that this means, due to a difference in costing structures, that they will receive less respite than they do currently. As Emily’s core team start and finish the day in her family home, this allows for a robust handover morning and evening to ensure a continual flow of information between staff and Emily’s Parents.
In the initial stages of Emily’s service, members of her staff team began to notice signs consistent with Epilepsy although no formal diagnosis was in place. This was recorded and reported in-line with organisational protocols and staff have since been attending routine appointments with a specialist consultant and incorporating his recommendations into everyday supports.
Previously Emily experienced frequent reflux when receiving administration of nutrition via a PEG. Staff then consulted with Emily’s Nurse who recommended a specific manner of postural positioning which has since resolved this problem.
“I am so pleased that we decided to use BOCS for Emily’s support – since they’ve been supporting her she’s much more relaxed, she’s happier and is blossoming into a curious and more independent young lady. She has a wonderful key worker who has an in-depth knowledge of Emily’s needs and communicates with me on a daily basis, whether it’s sending me pictures of her having fun to just letting me know how she’s doing. Her staff team do little things for her that she loves, like foot massages and keep a diary of her sessions so we can monitor any changes and work together to ensure the best possible support for Emily.”
– Mrs P (Emily’s Mum)
