Maddie’s story
Overview
From the age of 12, Maddie received ongoing support from Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for an eating disorder and anxiety. A few years later, she was an inpatient at psychiatric hospitals, receiving care and treatment for low weight, self-harm and suicidal ideation. Shropshire Council approached Thornbury Community Services (TCS) to create a bespoke package of care for Maddie to transition her safely back into the community to be with her family and prevent future hospital admissions.
Our approach
1. Specialist staff training
Expert training was provided to staff prior to starting Maddie’s package of care to ensure they had the right skills and knowledge to safely support her in her own home. This included an accredited method of training by the British Institute of Learning Disabilities and Restraint Reduction Network called ARC (Access, Respond, Care) which focused on de-escalation strategies designed for maintaining dignity and respect for Maddie.
2. Continuity of care
TCS supported Maddie in hospital on a 1:1 basis with a registered mental health nurse (RMN) supporting her during the day. Following a safe discharge home, we provided 24/7 1:1 RMN care for Maddie which gradually transitioned to 1:1 support-worker day care throughout the weekdays based on the positive progress Maddie was making. We maintained a consistent care team of nurses and support workers who built positive therapeutic relationships with Maddie; helping her to grow confidence and independence.
3. Person Centered Approach (PCA)
We embedded PCA into every aspect of Maddie’s care, listening to her needs and the needs of her family to create a highly bespoke care plan that promoted personal choice, empowering her to be actively involved in her care and recovery pathway. Maddie was provided with an all-female team to deliver direct care 24/7, which gradually reduced as Maddie progressed along her recovery pathway.
When TCS took over Maddie’s care, she had few hopes, aspirations, or dreams for her future. Through support, expert skills and knowledge of her care team, Maddie now has aspirations and is on the pathway to achieving these.
4. Autism insight and awareness
Our team supported Maddie in gaining further insight and awareness of autism to enable her to develop personal coping strategies to process and understand her surroundings and relationships. The knowledge Maddie attained can be utilised and implemented for the rest of her life and beyond her journey with TCS.
Impact
In our care, Maddie reached key milestones with our team’s support. We are extremely proud of Maddie’s development and her drive to successfully overcome barriers to achieve her goal of independence without care provision. Maddie is now living at home with her family, studying full-time whilst maintaining a volunteering position, part-time, and a part-time job. She is looking forward to her independence and a future without carers.
Developing hobbies and interests
By implementing mindfulness best practices and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) into Maddie’s care plan, our teams worked collaboratively with her family to enable Maddie to learn new hobbies and spend time doing what she loves, including listening to music, baking, reading, creating
arts and crafts, and walking her dog Luna. Embedding a person-centred autism approach to Maddie’s care provided her with predictability and consistency for a more balanced approach to life.
Building relationships
We worked with Maddie and her family to create a safe environment in their home to eliminate stress and anxiety where possible and better manage stressors when they couldn’t be eliminated. This allowed the family to spend quality time together, where they could encourage and support Maddie to socialise and gain independence.
Re-engaging in education
After five years of little exposure and access to education, TCS supported Maddie in attending online college lessons so she could begin to shape her future career.
At the age of 18, Maddie is now studying three A-levels in full-time education which has positively impacted her mental health and wellbeing and provided her with an opportunity for a positive independent future.
I felt as though I was in constant pursuit of happiness, trying to fit the ideal of what I thought life should be and look like. Essentially, I set really unhealthy and unrealistic expectations for my life that would never have been obtainable. For example, I couldn’t be sad and lost sight of what experiencing emotions were like in proportion to everyday life experiences. I felt as though I was constantly under a microscope and was continuously getting overwhelmed by the little things.
My bespoke care team took time to build a rapport with me by learning the things that truly mattered to me, such as walking my dog and going to Harry Potter World and Comic Con. Ultimately my staff team taught me to find joy again. Helping me with the little wins and finding that spark for life again.
Maddie
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