Palmarium, a specialist residential service in Wiltshire, has been providing support to Harry for less than a year. Harry is autistic and has learning disabilities, with complex additional needs.
If it wasn’t for Palmarium, which responded to an urgent appeal from the local specialist health team, Harry almost certainly would have been transferred to a secure hospital, which would have negatively impacted his quality of life.
In just 10 months, Harry’s life has been transformed, and he continues to make very positive progress.
Harry was removed from his previous residential setting due to behaviours that challenge and was admitted to a hospital. The situation left him extremely distressed.
Thanks to the dedicated and highly skilled team at Palmarium and their established professional partnerships, they responded quickly and confidently to understand Harry’s needs and provide him with a safe and stable environment.
At first, Palmarium would meet with health care partners several times a week to discuss Harry’s support and progress. This involved conversations with social workers, occupational therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and behaviour nurses.
Over time, the specialist health team began to reduce their involvement. They were extremely confident with high-quality support from the core, stable team at Palmarium. And were extremely happy with the high level of detail and analysis in robust support plans.
All this contributed towards positive outcomes in a short space of time, something that previous care providers were unable to achieve.
"At the point of the placement being offered, he had to be cared for in an A&E department for several days and at that time, there appeared to be no alternative but to arrange admission to an acute specialist LD bed.
“The Palmarium team responded quickly and confidently to understand Harry’s needs and provide a safe community setting. The work undertaken with Harry and his family has been of an exceptionally high quality and akin to the level of an inpatient assessment.
“As a clinical team, we have seen Harry make very positive progress in this placement. The management team and core care staff should be commended for their excellent work here.”
To support a smooth transition into Palmarium, the team, alongside local health care professionals, developed a specialist, personalised support plan for Harry, aimed at empowering him to live his best life.
~ Specialist communication package
The team quickly discovered that their communication style had to be adapted to avoid Harry becoming distressed.
Harry relies on visual support to communicate and requires a very structured routine. They introduced personalised social stories, developed for a variety of daily scenarios, as well as a structured weekly planner.
These closed choices not only assured Harry of predictability but also reduced any feelings of confusion and overwhelm.
~ Reducing medication need
The support team at Palmarium continued to adapt personalised support for Harry, provided in a calm and settled environment.
As a result, the number of crises that would otherwise have required medication decreased.
Dr Ward, a local health care professional, praised the team for their commitment to staying reactive:
“A consistent commitment to minimising the use of medications, including reviewing the response to as-needed medications and adjusting the threshold accordingly, is a particular positive outcome.”
~ Increasing community engagement
When Palmarium began supporting Harry, he did not participate in any community activities and spent considerable time indoors due to behavioural risks.
As part of the structured weekly planner the team developed for Harry, and following a risk assessment, he now regularly attends a variety of social clubs and takes part in community activities every day.
Introducing Harry back into the community came with its challenges. However, the stable and experienced team enabled Harry to safely engage in consistent and predictable activities, which he loves.
Thanks to Palmarium, Harry is now leading a happy life. If it weren’t for the team responding to the emergency and stepping in to provide support, the impact of his admission to a secure hospital would have been extremely negative.
“We are extremely proud of the partnerships we have developed with local health professionals, like Dr Ward and her team, enabling us to successfully deliver positive outcomes for people that other providers have been unable to safely support. We’ve been able to provide Harry with a period of calm and stability after a very traumatic couple of years, where everything appeared to be going wrong for him, which is a huge achievement. It’s a whole team effort, and I am very proud of the outcome.”
Palmarium is a specialist residential service for adults with learning disabilities, who may also have complex needs, autistic people, or people who need a comprehensive package of specialist, highly trained support with physical needs and activities of daily living.
Following the last inspection, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated Palmarium ‘Good’ across all key criteria, including safety, effectiveness, caring approach, responsiveness, and leadership.
If you would like to speak to our friendly referrals admin team, call us on 0333 305 0880 or email referrals@nationalcaregroup.com.
National Care Group is one of the UK’s leading adult social care providers. We support adults with learning disabilities, mental health diagnoses, acquired brain injuries, and autistic people, with services across England and Wales.
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