Reablement Successes!

G’s story

G was referred to Reablement by his care manager, Jacqueline, to support him to become more independent and feel connected within his community. The focus of Reablement is always to consider what just enough support is for the individual, involving community and natural support networks, with paid support put in place only where a gap has been identified.

G is a 52 year old man with Muscular Dystrophy, who lives on his own, his condition is deteriorating. G has a placid, easy going nature and likes to get along with people. G was introduced to Dawn as his core worker to assist through the Reablement journey.

At the first meeting Dawn, G, Tracy and his social worker Jacqueline discussed what was working/not working for G. This was done from everyone’s perspective. A plan was agreed with outcomes for G for when he was leaving Total Care and moving into his new home. Dawn identified well matched staff for G who would support him during the next 6 weeks.

The Reablement team worked closely and intensively with G to assess doing things for himself and having the support to learn new skills and becoming more independent. His support workers observed and offered encouragement and advice were needed. At this point G was having daily support, his support were happy that G was confident in what he could do for himself. The next step was to support G with community links. G soon had activities to do – Bingo on two nights, gentleman’s evening on a Friday. He made lots of new friendships.

G’s Reablement journey ran for 6 weeks with a planned phased reduction over the last couple of weeks. G started with around 30 hours. G now has an individual budget which he uses to employ a support worker for 12 hours per week, to support him with personal care, appointments, shopping and getting to places.

G’s Reablement journey has enabled him to develop his confidence and have a more active social life, where he has opportunities to meet lots of people, developing and maintaining relationships.

Feedback from Advocacy Co-ordinator

I asked G how his support has been since moving from his previous provider. He thinks the support has been very good and is especially happy with the support from Dawn because of all the hard work she has done in ensuring the house move went smoothly. He elt he had a say in when his support took place and feels that the support meets his needs. As G’s advocate, I have been really happy with the commitment from the Reablement team in making sure the move went well. I think the communication has been excellent and everyone has worked well together. The assessment seems to cover all G’s needs and was done with G’s involvement, which is the way it should be.

A’s Reablement Journey

A is in her 40s and lives with her son J who is 14; she has natural support from her mum who lives next door to them. A’s mum has helped over the years with raising J and has been A’s main carer; she has never had support from services. A is a very caring and kind person who has a real passion for handbags.

It was discussed and agreed by the social work team that A would benefit from Reablement because of one or two things happening that had become a worry to her such as budgeting and spending along with J not allays getting to school on time. Intensive work from the Reablement team would support her to learn how to do things differently. Dawn went along to meet A with her care manager Eve at her home to gather information that would support her Reablement Journey. Together they considered what was working and not working for her, doing this helped them to identify what outcomes they wanted from reablement. A wanted to have a better routine around ensuring that J was getting up and getting to school on time and she asked for some support around budgeting, spending and getting organised with housework.

It was really important to A that she had a small core staff team who she could get to know, trust and have confidence in. Dawn felt that because they had got on so well initially she could start to engage A with the changes they had planned she would work toward. Dawn thought that things would go better if she was the only worker initially not to overload A with different people too soon. There was a concern that when things aren’t going well for A she may self-harm and it was important that her reablement journey was a positive experience.

Dawn began A’s Reablement journey with her, the work that they did together really helped A to become more motivated. A went from strength to strength during the first couple of weeks with intensive support from Dawn to become organised within the home and have some routine and structure in place that would enable J to be ready in time for school in the mornings.

A’s Reablement journey started with between 20-30 hours each week reducing to 12 hours. A, Dawn and A's social worker met each week to review how things were going and to plan for the following weeks support.

A now has the structure in place that she needed to run her home and J is getting to school on time each day.

A’s social worker has commented that Dawn has done a fantastic job in engaging with A and supporting her to improve her own life and that of her family members.

Ann has said ‘it’s done me the world of good, only made small changes but feeling a difference should have done it years ago. Dawn has been a great support through the reablement, she’s brilliant’.

R’s Reablement Journey

R was referred to the reablement team by her care manager to support her to become more independent and feel connected within her community.

R is a 19 year old woman who lives with her family. She has recently left college. R wanted to develop the confidence to do more for her self and to make links within her local community that would enable her to make new friend’s and improve her social life.

The reablement team leader Dawn met with R and her family to plan how this could be achieved. Dawn needed to establish what’s working and what’s not working that needs to change with an agreed action plan in place. Dawn then went on to identify well matched staff that would support R during the next 6 weeks.

The team worked with R and her mum around her doing the things for her self that she could do and having the support to learn new skills becoming more independent. Her support worker observed and offered encouragement and advice where needed. At this point R was having daily support. When they was happy that R was confident in what she could do and her self esteem had grown the next step was to look at what was going on within her local community that she could be part of. R soon had something she was involved with most days of the week that enabled her to meet people and have fun such as local discos and pubs. She also started a cookery class to further develop her independent living skills. To ensure R felt confident and comfortable she had support initially for each event. The reablement team then worked on travel with R with the aim of her using the bus independently. To achieve this support staff took steps back when appropriate. This followed weekly reviews with R to check how things were going from everyone’s perspective and that R felt ready for the next step. The outcome was that R no longer needed support by staff for both travel and attending the community based events, which she achieved within a shorter timescale than originally planned for.

R’s reablement journey ran for 4 weeks with a planned phased reduction over the last 2 weeks. She started with 6 hours reducing to 4 and then to 2 hours.

R now has an individual budget which she uses to employ a PA for a few hours a week to support her with her personal shopping and getting to places that is difficult by bus.

R’s reablement journey has enabled her to develop into a confident young woman with the skills that equip her for her future, along with an active social life where she has opportunities to meet lots of people developing and maintaining relationships.

Dawn says ‘reablement has gone really well for R, she wanted to make community links and now she has them. We have done everything we set out to achieve. Without the reablement journey R would be sat at home on her own while her mum is at work. She now has an IB in place which means she can carry on doing the things she enjoys’.