The Progression of Gail, Clerk Green’s Very Own Mary Berry!
Gail is a 69-year old woman with mild learning disabilities who first moved to our Clerk Green Service in 2018. People with a learning disability often tend to take longer to develop new skills, understand complicated information and interact with others. However, It was recognised that Gail had the potential to learn and retain new skills, build positive relationships and lead a more rewarding and fulfilling life with support from our staff at one of our Support Living Services.
Clerk Green is a supported living service situated in the small village of Maesycwmmer, Caerphilly. The service supports up to three individuals with Learning Disabilities and Mental Health issues. The support team focus on combining Positive Behaviour Support and Active Support to help minimise behaviours that challenge and to support individuals to fulfil their potential.
Expanding Horizons is committed to a philosophy of ‘doing with’ rather than ‘doing for’ service users and our service model encourages service user’s involvement in every aspect of their life. Active support is an outcome focused enabling approach that has led to many people making real choices and positive life changes in their journey towards reaching their full potential.
When Gail first moved in, support staff established that Gail had limited daily living skills and lacked the motivation to participate. Staff worked closely with Gail and found that prompting and setting the scene to start certain tasks worked best for Gail. For example, Gail was able to prepare simple meals such as beans on toast when she first arrived at Clerk Green, however, staff have since focused on Gail’s culinary skills by using the Active Support model which has enabled us to prompt, show and guide Gail to learn how to cook more complex meals. Staff have also created a recipe book with Gail, so that she can visualise the meals and choose which one she would like to prepare that day. Gail has now developed her meal preparation skills and with the supervision of staff and some prompts, Gail can prepare more complex meals such as cottage pie, homemade pizza’s, bolognese and many more.
Gail has established a good daily routine since living at Clerk Green and participates in most tasks around the home. Although Gail sometimes requires prompting from staff to begin a task, once completed, she is proud of her accomplishment and will explain to other staff members what tasks she has completed that day. Gail is now largely independent when doing her laundry, cleaning and preparation of meals.
Gail has developed a new level of independence and leads a more meaningful life, engaging in activities that she enjoys and accessing the community on a daily basis. Our team have supported Gail by creating and following Personal Support Plans to develop her skills and involvement to establish a routine and lifestyle that Gail wishes to lead.
Gail is a very friendly and sociable person who loves to be involved in activities with others and being out and about in the community. Gail has built positive relationships with both staff and her peers within the service, everyone loves working with Gail!
Some of Gail’s favourite activities include baking , crafts, knitting and going out into the community. Gail accesses the community with support from staff and always looks forward to this part of her day. Just a few of Gail’s favourite places to visit include Caerphilly Castle, Pen-y-Fan Ponds, shopping centres and restaurants. Gail takes pride in her general appearance and loves to shop for new clothes, jewellery and perfume every so often and will purchase these items independently.
It has been a pleasure to support Gail and witness her progression over the last three years and we look forward to continue to support Gail to enjoy a fulfilling lifestyle at Clerk Green and work towards the goals that are important to her.