A purr-fect place to call home

Fay was just 20-years-old when she was first admitted to hospital for her mental health, following the aftermath of a traumatic childhood and having a learning disability.

Over the years, Fay developed severe mental illness, including emotional personality disorder. She also has a hearing impairment and a cochlear implant.

“People in my life ill-treated me,” said Fay. “I wanted to end my own life. I became really ill and that’s why I went to hospital.”

Fay spent many years after in a secure mental health unit. Her symptoms and behaviours were so severe that her care needed three-to-one support.

She remembered: “It was awful there, people would spread faeces on the toilet floors and everything was noisy. I would feel stressed and I could suddenly get very ill and want to hurt myself.

“I just started to think ‘I’ve got to get out of here’ but for years and years there was nowhere for me.

“There were restraints on other patients most days and having that around me wasn’t a nice environment. I don’t think it helped me to feel better.”

Being allowed out once-a-week, she often didn’t have the confidence or energy to do anything.

Fay said: “I’d just sit and stare at the telly. I didn’t see the point.”

Fay finally made the first step to live in the community after the hospital she was in closed and a care in the community plan was put into place for those patients deemed eligible. Fay was one of them.

She explained: “I was really nervous but I wanted to change my life. I wanted to learn how to live.”

It was then that Fay met our Transforming Care Team and her journey to independence began. The team helps those with a learning disability transition from long-stay mental health hospitals into the community and is made up of an occupational therapist, a speech and language therapist and community nurses.

Fay and Lisa having a walk together

Fay soon moved into a supported living apartment in Sandwich. The place has everything she needs – including her own bathroom and kitchen – and she can go out whenever she wants, with a member of support staff.

Setting her life up ‘on the outside’ took time and effort. Occupational Therapist Lisa Russell completed a sensory processing assessment, to help make sure Fay could cope with normal life.

Lisa said: “I carried out a Safe Home Environment Assessment to identify potential risks in Fay’s new home, support framework and risks to herself.

“We made recommendations to make her flat safe and around accessing activities both at home and in the local area.”

Her speech and language therapist helped her with easy read options and social stories as well as ‘comic strip’ conversations, which are simple visualisations of a conversation, to help her process difficult language and emotions.

Community nursing colleagues made sure she attended appointments to check her hearing aid, helped her to get registered with a new GP and create a health passport.

Lisa continued: “Fay was institutionalised in the sense that for all those years, she’d never so much as made herself a cup of tea. We helped her set her own personal goals of things she wanted to achieve.

“These were to own a pet cat, to have a washing line, to make her own meals and to go on a short holiday. She got Bonnie, a rescue cat, within a few months of moving in and she has done a fantastic job looking after her. Bonnie is so happy around Fay and is always purring.”

Fay said: “She is a lovely cat and she makes me feel calm. She likes sitting close to me.”

Fay has not just started to live in the community, she is becoming a part of it.

Spending time at Age UK for a cup of coffee and a cake, she has made many friends. Fay also built a special connection with a neighbour in her supported living complex.

“He came over and we had a takeaway together,” she smiled. “I also went over to some friends to have a cup of tea who I met on the bus when I was going to town.”

Fay loves arcade machines and was thrilled to hit her holiday goal – visiting Dymchurch in a caravan overnight with her support worker.

“We won lots on the bingo,” she laughed. “They said we were one number off a million pounds.”

The change in Fay, says the team around her, is ‘remarkable’. Since moving in last March, Fay has not had an ‘episode’ of her illness and is on the whole upbeat, happy and hopeful. Her support compared to being in the unit is now one-to-one, and not three-to-one.

Fay could not be happier, she said: “I love having my own house, my own ornaments, some friends and making cups of tea. When I first came here I was scared, but I am not anymore.