Sometimes moving to a new home can take time, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it makes it all worthwhile. Here’s Mary’s moving-in story, where she shares her experience on recently moving into one of our supported living services.

Meet Mary

Mary, an individual in her forties, was looking to move from her residential care home into a supported living service. She wanted a more independent setting and freedom of having her own flat.

Mary is a wheelchair user, has autism and severe epilepsy. Her new home needed to be right for her to support all her needs. Mary and her mum found our brand-new supported living service in Bo’ness, Falkirk. Called Woodlands, it consists of eight ground-floor, accessible self-contained flats with communal areas and onsite staff facilities. Mary was excited about living in her own modern flat, complete with a large skylight!

The start of the journey

The journey began in April 2020, we started to work closely with Mary, her mum, her support team and her previous care providers. We made our virtual introductions and discussed what support Mary would need. We also wanted to conduct our assessment in person, so we waited until a warm summer day and visited Mary in her garden. We were able to follow COVID-19 guidelines, where we could socially distance but still to get to know Mary.

We discovered that due to Mary’s severe epilepsy, our team would need additional training for her specific epilepsy medication. Because of this, our team made a special trip to the local hospital for training. This made Mary and her mum confident that she was receiving the best care possible. It also empowered the team as it provided them with the needed skills and knowledge to a give a focused, person-centred approach.

Using technology in the transition process

As part of our transition process, we took Mary and her mum on a virtual tour of the service and what would be her flat. Mum was keen to see the flat in person, so we also arranged a social distanced visit of the service where all government guidelines were followed. Ahead of the visit we provided Mary and her mum with information on how the visit would be conducted. We advised them to wear a mask, keep two metres apart at all times and directed them to where they could wash their hands and showed them where hand sanitisers were available. The support team saw that Mary and her mum were incredibly close, but due to her mum’s health, it could be difficult for her to visit. They took the decision to install an oxygen tank in Mary’s flat so that mum could visit in comfort.

A new home

Now we were on countdown to Mary moving in. In November 2020, a whole eight months after we started the transition process, Mary moved in. Before Mary could move in, she had to take two COVID-19 tests a week apart. When the results came back negative, she moved in safely and hasn’t looked back!

Moving in one of our services doesn’t normally take nearly this long. It is necessary to make sure it’s safe and at the speed the person we support is comfortable with. It was worth the wait! Mary is settled and loves her independence, plus mum is ecstatic to see her daughter happy and learning new skills every day.

To find out more about our autism support, click here to complete our quick form.

Please note: This article is about events that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic and reflects the safety measures based on Government advice during that specific time period. Please be assured that at all times, Voyage Care follows the appropriate COVID-19 safety measures to keep our staff and the people we support safe. To find out more about our COVID-19 safety precautions, please visit our COVID-19 resource area.

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