Robert’s story describes the journey of a young man, moving into his first home and how the support he received changed over time and redesigned around what mattered to him.
In 2016 The Improvement Hub (ihub), was asked to develop an approach to support the redesign of overnight support services. The process focused on a redesign process centred around what mattered to people who received overnight support and new technology developments that could transform care offered within people’s own homes.
Choice and control for those receiving care is central to Scottish Government Policy allowing people to make informed choices on what their support looks like and how it is delivered, making it possible to meet agreed personal outcomes.
Robert is a young man who enjoys a full and varied life. He has two jobs and is a big football fan and season ticket holder! Robert enjoys the freedom of having his own car and money which allows him to regularly attend football matches, keep in contact with his family and mange his own budget.
Robert also enjoys personal time to relax. He has a passion for American Wrestling and has been to a few tours both in Scotland and recently went to Wales and Liverpool to follow his favourite WWE wrestlers.
“as Robert’s independence grew so did his confidence and as his confidence grew so too did his independence” -member of Robert's care team staff
In June 2009 for the first time Robert moved into his own home. In the early stage of this process Robert did not have a huge experience of making decisions and often found this process a little tough and liked to talk issues through with people that he knew well.
Throughout the move into his own house Robert’s team encouraged him to take control and make his own informed choices about his activities that would promote opportunities to build relationships, make new friends and ensure that he is a valued part of his local community.
When Robert first moved into his house he received 24 hour support, 7 days a week. In February 2012 Robert started to indicate that he felt ready to spend overnight without direct support.
By March 2013 Robert spent his first night without paid support, with his team members on call for him and over March Robert increased the amount of unsupported nights he had.
In April 2013 Robert no longer needed support during the night and was using an oncall service, with his team leaving at 10pm till 2am and during April Robert did not use the oncall service.
May 2013 was a significant month for Robert and his team as overnight support was completely withdrawn with an emergency on call system in place should it be required.
Robert has a full and active life he has recently met up with an old friend from school and enjoys going to concerts, football, out for dinner or just staying in and watching a movie with his friend. This was the one thing missing from Robert’s life a good friend and peer that he had lots in common with.
Robert’s story and others like his were central to the approach taken to supporting the redesign of overnight support and the process designed to bring health and social care partnerships and local providers together to support the redesign of overnight support.
The artwork used was provided by MoreThanMinutes.