Charlotte's Story
Charlotte* was diagnosed with both autism and severe challenging behaviour. As Charlotte got older, her parents found it dicult to cope with Charlotte’s behaviour, especially her physical aggression towards them and other people. With this occurring on a constant basis and becoming more aggressive, Charlotte’s parents required additional support and contacted their local authority.
Charlotte was having an estimated 18 incidents per week when she first arrived at Roseneath Avenue and was excluded from a specialist school due to her challenging behaviour towards their staff members.
How we helped Charlotte
Charlotte immediately received one-to-one support from a dedicated keyworker at Roseneath Avenue and a personalised support plan was created with input from Charlotte, her parents and social worker.
Staff used the Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) framework, as well as programmes including PROACT-SCIPr-UK® to help proactively manage situations where Charlotte was becoming aggressive. This resulted in positive interventions taking place with staff seeing to her needs before they escalated any further.
Staff also found that distraction techniques including loud noises, blowing bubbles and touching her hands calmed Charlotte down. With the right techniques and support in place, staff began to see a lot of progress in Charlotte and the incidents per week started to decrease.
The team at Roseneath Avenue would keep in close contact with Charlotte’s parents and social worker, providing them with regularly updates on Charlotte’s behaviour and the progress she was making. Staff also maintained a weekly routine where Charlotte would visit her family every Sunday which both Charlotte and her family enjoyed.
Outcomes
When Charlotte arrived at Roseneath Avenue, she was having violent outbursts 18 times a week, now she is only having 3 a month. Charlotte is also going out of the home with staff and chooses what activities she would like to do during the week. These activities include sensory visits to the seaside and swimming lessons as Charlotte likes to hear the water and feel it on her skin.
Charlotte is also becoming more independent and with the encouragement from staff has increased her daily living skills. For example, Charlotte chooses her own food from the supermarket and then helps to cook her meals.
Charlotte is now even attending a day centre once a week without the support from staff whilst she is at the centre. Members of staff will escort Charlotte to the door and then pick her up at the end of the day. This would have been unimaginable six months ago, especially Charlotte being around people she was unfamiliar with and really shows the progress Charlotte has made since being at Roseneath Avenue.
*Names have been changed to maintain confidentiality.