Like any parents would be, Nick and Sharon were concerned about their daughter Nicole leaving education and moving home.

Nicole has a learning disability, she is autistic and has a visual impairment, which means that life can at times be very difficult to understand. The result can be Nicole communicating through her behaviours that have been described as challenging.

SeeAbility's support

Once SeeAbility was chosen as Nicole’s support provider, our team set about getting to know her and her family. As part of our approach to supporting transitions and change, our team visited Nicole weekly for two months, often staying overnight and observing her daily routines.

With our focus on understanding the person and what is important to them, SeeAbility’s team continued to take time to really understand Nicole and explored and developed new ways of working with her. They were able to recognise the signs of mood change and gave her space when she needed it.

Last year Nicole moved from Fleet with her housemates to a new home in Aldershot, Hampshire. The change meant that Nicole had to adjust to new surroundings and began to find life difficult again, which she communicated through her behaviours.

Positive Behaviour Support

SeeAbility quickly implemented a Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) plan which helped staff to identify a proactive way of working with Nicole and after PBS training and coaching, SeeAbility’s support workers are now much more positive when Nicole becomes upset, which means the situation comes to an end quickly as Nicole is reassured and relaxed.

"Without the dedication and patience of the staff at the Aldershot centre and the work of the positive behavioural support specialists, Nicole would not have demonstrated such positive progress." - Sharon, Nicole's mother

One of the keys was increasing what Nicole was doing in the day so that she could get attention and interaction in a positive way. We learnt that by being actively engaged in everyday life it can help to reduce or remove the behaviours that others find challenging.

Outcomes

Nicole now enjoys meals out as she loves her food and shopping. Her days are much more sociable and she spends far less time in her room, and in turn, the times that Nicole has been unhappy has decreased (see the graph below).

SeeAbility’s team have worked hard to give Nicole confidence to become more independent and her skills have dramatically increased. With reinforcement for completing simple tasks, this has been built on gradually.

"Nicole now has much less restricted life" - Kate Barker, SeeAbility’s Positive Behaviour Support Lead

Recently she attended an 'ABBA Party' in a fancy dress costume with her Mum - there were over fifty people there and she had a great time! This would have been very difficult for her before.