Read about Andrew’s successful move to Ty Machen
Andrew, a 64-year old man with learning disabilities and autism from Bristol moved to Ty Machen from a nursing home in March 2020.
Andrew had been living at the nursing home for two years, however as a result of a reduction in medicine, he started to feel much younger and more alert. He became very active and the nursing home found they could no longer meet his needs. It was recognised that Andrew would have a much better quality of life in an alternative setting that could support him to lead an active and fulfilling life.
Ty Machen is a residential service, situated in the small village of Machen, near Newport. The service supports up to six individuals with learning disabilities, autism, challenging behaviour and complex heath needs. The setting focuses on combining Positive Behaviour Support and Active Support to help minimise behaviours and support individuals to achieve their person-centred goals.
Before Andrew moved in, the service had arranged to transport him back and forth to Bristol on a regular basis so that he could keep in contact with his friends and family. Unfortunately, almost as soon as he moved to Ty Machen, there was a national lockdown due to Covid-19 and he was unable to continue with his planned activities.
Positive Behaviour Support Approach
Andrew is a very sociable person and loves to be surrounded by other people and being out and about in the community. He initially, found it quite difficult to cope with the lockdown. He became quite agitated and started to have behaviours because of his boredom and loss of freedom.
At Ty Machen, the team are very experienced at supporting individuals with a range of complex needs and are all trained in Positive Behaviour Support.
Gayle Thomas, from Consensus dedicated Positive Behaviour Intervention Team, also works closely with the team to identify, evaluate and adapt Positive Behaviour Support Strategies that support individuals to reduce behaviours and increase their quality of life.
The team at Ty Machen are also well-established and know all the individuals extremely well. They know their behaviours and the support plans they have in place so they understand their needs and can support them effectively straight away.
Putting their knowledge and expertise into practise, the team focused on supporting Andrew to maintain as normal a routine as possible and supported him to get involved in lots of activities that he enjoyed, and which gave him a sense of purpose.
Support workers are skills matched with individuals who have similar interests and enjoy similar activities, which helps to build rapport and trust. Andrew has developed a lovely relationship with one particular support worker who supports him with all of his activities.
During the lockdown he has really been enjoying baking cakes. His favourite ones to make are apple crumble and lemon drizzle cake. He has also set up his own car washing service and loves to make everyone’s cars shiny and pristine.
The team also recognised how important it was for Andrew’s wellbeing to maintain his close relationships and have supported Andrew to use technology to regularly ‘face time’ with his family.
Andrew has also been taking part in lots of activities in the garden and especially loves the regular Karaoke sessions. He is a natural performer. He loves singing Elvis and knows all the words to all the songs.
As lockdown eased, the team began supporting Andrew to go out into the community four times a week, including to the beach which he loves. He is happy and comfortable to wear a mask when he goes out as he knows it gives him the opportunity to enjoy greater freedom.
Andrew is quite a character and is much loved by all the support team and supported individuals in the service. He has settled in really well and loves to make everyone a cup of tea when they come into the service as he likes to have a purpose and feel part of everything.
The team are looking forward to continuing to support Andrew to enjoy an active lifestyle at Ty Machen and work towards the goals that are important to him.