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Jackie’s Story
Jackie lives in a studio flat at Prince Regent – Precious Homes Autism-Specific residential service in Newham.
This is Jackie’s Story
Jackie has Autism Spectrum Condition and Bipolar Disorder and can sometimes experience very low days due to her mental health.
Jackie transitioned from a secure setting into Prince Regent House two years ago after a long period in hospital.
Jackie has an all-female, consistent and highly trained team supporting her and providing 1:1 support at home and 2:1 support in the community to keep her safe.
In January, Jackie’s 2:1 support in the community was reduced to 1:1 – a fantastic achievement and key step in her journey to independence.
A planned and personalised transition
For Jackie, a planned and personalised transition was the key in ensuring her successful community placement.
We developed transition plan for Jackie – led by her preferences and needs and guided by her multi-disciplinary team and her hospital team.
At Precious Homes we do not commit to a set transition period – this is informed via individual needs, legal requirements, MDT/hospital guidance and choice of the individual.
Since living at Prince Regent she has been supported to live in the community successfully, transform her life and develop links and purpose locally. The key message is that not one size will fit all and we will adapt and shape the transition to meet individual needs.
A detailed assessment
A detailed assessment was carried out by Precious Home’s Manager – this included meeting Jackie, the hospital staff, her family and other professionals.
Information gathered included observations at hospital and reviewing historic information and risk assessments.
Our assessments are strength based and took a holistic view of Jackie and her level of skills in key areas so that we could capture:
- Background information, including Jackie’s views, needs, likes/dislikes and environmental factors.
- Jackie’s health needs and any unmet health needs, including medication review.
- Communication needs
- Capacity Assessment/how the person makes decisions.
- Risk identification and process.
- Support and protection issues, CTOs or legal frameworks.
From the information captured, a detailed support plan was developed to build Jackie’s pathway. It started by looking at what she could do and implementing plans to increase her skills, confidence and independence.
Jackie’s outcomes and support planning was focussed on the development of life skills for successful community living.Jackie 2
Jackie’s own home
For Jackie, the key has been aiding her understanding that her flat is her home and that she can make choices and decisions about how she manages her own space. Her team have supported her to decorate her flat, including stencilling she created herself, with Jackie now very proud of her space and environment.
Community Connections and Self-Managing Emotions
Jackie is very sociable and in response, her team have supported her to widen her local connections which were limited since being in hospital. As a very creative person, activities involve taking part in Art sessions at her local garden café. Her team have also encouraged her to use the communal areas at the service, specifically the kitchen, where she has developed a passion for making cakes and getting involved in preparing her own meals.
Jackie has an all-female support team as a personal choice and has developed some real positive relationships with them through their consistent, positive and proactive approach. This has involved writing down her feelings and emotions in a journal, which also acts as a way of recording her progress so she can look back and see her successes and achievements.
Jackie’s family are also very positive about her progress and life at Prince Regent, after initially being apprehensive about her move into a new service. Everybody is very proud of Jackie and look forward to seeing her move towards greater independence!
MDT Input
Jackie’s team receive input from Newham Learning Disability Team, Psychology and Psychiatry, as well as having 6 months’ initial support from SLAM to aid her transition. Jackie also received art therapy for 12 months, which through Jackie’s personal choice naturally came to an end.
Reviewing goals and progress
For Jackie we set realistic outcomes and targets – so that she was not set up to fail, but likewise so her progress is recorded and clear.
Jackie’s goals are reviewed on a monthly basis, broken down into segments so progress made can be clear, with achievable steps set in advance, and enabling Jackie to take ownership of these.
Each month incidents are recorded on a functional analysis allowing her team to identify a pattern of behaviour – with a clear reduction in incidents evident.
Collectively, Jackie’s independence and confidence levels have increased significantly; enabling care package costs to reduce with a focus on continuous reductions over time.
