Enabling Tim to live a fulfilled life!

Meet Tim!

Tim is an autistic person we support at our specialist autism support service, Northfield House, located in Taunton, Somerset. He has lived at our home for over 25 years, but is the happiest he has ever been in recent years!

Tim has recently achieved his latest goal of becoming more independent and confident with the help of his support team. They created a person-centred care plan to support Tim in engaging with various activities in the house and in the local community, while ensuring he is taking steps to achieving his goals.

Life before Voyage Care‘s autism support service

Before Tim joined Voyage Care in 1996, he was being supported by a different provider in Bristol. The services Tim lived at provided respite care, but unfortunately, these did not meet his needs.

As a result of this, Tim lacked independence, and he wasn’t half as confident as he is now.

His family knew he wasn’t reaching his full potential. This prompted a move to our autism support service, Northfield House, to ensure Tim’s needs could be met! Over the first few months, our team took time to get to know Tim, finding out what he likes as well as what he doesn’t like, to develop a person-centred care plan based on Tim’s needs and interests.

This included supporting Tim to create a routine, as they recognised he liked to follow a schedule for the day and didn’t like it when this didn’t go to plan. They also recognised Tim’s interests in cooking, music and drama, and began to encourage hobbies based around these interests.

Gaining independence

As a person with autism, Tim enjoys his routine and likes things done in a certain way. Each morning, Tim likes to wake up early before everyone else in the house. He gets himself ready for the day by making his way to the kitchen for a nice cup of coffee to start his morning, which he enjoys sat on the sofa with his Alexa. He also enjoys saying goodbye to the night team and greets the morning team as they come in, putting a smile on everyone’s face.

Tim has recently found enjoyment in cooking for himself, his housemates, and his support team too! His Support Worker, Arron, helps Tim plan meals each week by looking through cookbooks and choosing the meals he would like to make. They then pick up the ingredients, with Arron helping Tim get to the local shops and supporting him to make healthy food choices!

By learning these new daily living skills, Tim has become more independent. This gives him more control over his days and gives him the confidence that activities are done the way he likes!

A quote image reading 'Depdning how complex the meal is, he does a lot of the cooking himself! He just needs bullet points and guidelines. -Arron, Support Worker' on a teal background, next to an image of Tim and Arron smiling.

Encouraging Tim to continue his passions!

By understanding Tim and paying close attention to his emotions, the team noticed Tim’s love for socialising with others. Once they knew this, they encouraged him to develop passions around this.

The team knew that Tim loved music, and that he is an incredible presenter. So, they reached out to a local radio station, Ten Radio, and helped secure a slot for Tim and two other housemates to do a show every Saturday night, which they decided to call “The Saturday Night Gang!”.

Tim and his co-presenters write and prepare the scripts themselves for each show! They then make their way to the radio studio and prepare themselves before going live – this is a huge achievement and joy for Tim!

Tim also expressed an interest in acting, but wasn’t keen on the idea of attending a drama group at the local Regal Theatre. The team encouraged Tim to try it out, as they knew he would love it. They also knew that joining the group would be a great opportunity for Tim to build new relationships, grow his confidence and make friends!

With support from his team, Tim agreed to attend drama group sessions, but preferred not to be involved in any of their regular stage shows. After a while, the organiser of the group noticed Tim’s talent for acting, and with his new-found confidence, he began attending rehearsals for the shows! Tim’s talent for learning the scripts and adding his own personality into every character was clear, and now Tim takes part in at least two productions every year!

Tim’s Support Worker Julie absolutely loves to watch him on stage and says “he loves to bring his own humour to his roles – he never fails to make the audience laugh!”.

Thanks to these community-based activities, Tim’s confidence has sky rocketed. He enjoys showcasing his skills – be it acting, presenting, or cooking – and sharing his experiences with others!

A quote image reading 'As his independence has increased, his confidence has grown. He has come out of himself a lot more. -Julie, Senior Support Worker' on a teal background, next to an image of Tim.

A sudden change of routine

Tim’s routine was turned upside down during the COVID-19 pandemic. His autism means that he doesn’t react well to change, and he likes the predictability of a routine. However, due to lockdown and the implementation of new social-distancing rules, Tim’s routine changed suddenly, which he struggled to deal with, and his confidence began to decrease as a result.

Our team understood the importance of Tim’s routine, and noticed the negative impacts the lack of structure was having on him. He lost his interest in cooking, so to get his spark back, they decided to empower Tim by making a checklist for his daily living tasks.

This motivated Tim because he loves to check things off – as it gives him a sense of achievement with each task he completes. Over time, he began to enjoy cooking again and became more involved with the planning and cooking of meals, ticking off each step in the recipe as he did them.

Tim’s hopes for the future!

Tim is such an enthusiastic person, and he has many goals for his future!

He’s excited to continue attending the Regal Theatre, and hopes to play the leading role in one of their annual plays! So far, he has taken part in seven productions, and is currently preparing for his next big performance. This will see Tim perform Disney songs to the audience.

As a key part of Tim’s weekly routine, he also hopes to continue The Saturday Night Gang radio show on Ten Radio with his friends, as he absolutely loves writing his scripts and doing the show!

Learn more about our specialist autism support!

To find out more about how we support people with autism to live fulfilling lives, visit our dedicated webpage! Ready to make an enquiry? Fill in our quick form and our friendly team will be in touch!