Andrew - Links House
Andrew was described as having Autism and severe learning difficulties when he came to live at Links in 2012.
Initially Andrew was unable to communicate effectively. However, through support and guidance from the Links care team, the Speech Therapy team, the Educational team at his school and from his parents, Andrew has grown to understand simple verbal instructions, responding to requests and questions in an appropriate manner.
When Andrew first came to live at Links he was on an additive free diet, despite there being no medical conditions attached to this diet.
Meals were adapted in order to accommodate Andrew’s needs. Over time, Andrew trialled school dinners as a way of introducing foods containing additives back into his diet.
In 2013, Andrew was introduced to a completely normal diet due to the success of school dinners and he now continues to eat a healthy and well balanced diet of different foods, some of which contain additives.
During his time at Links, Andrew learnt to walk semi-independently with a member of the staff team.
From being risk assessed as a needing 2:1 support in the community, he was assessed as 1:1 when ‘out and about.’
He began walking alongside staff without the need to be held or restricted (apart from when crossing roads or being out in heavily populated areas).
Andrew now travels both comfortably and confidently on public transport and in taxis, an amazing step forward from when he first arrived.
He grew in confidence when attending medical and dental appointments, and displayed much greater maturity and tolerance than he had shown in these situations prior to living at Links House.
Andrew began enjoying a busy social life outside of school; trampolining on a Monday, football on a Tuesday and swimming every other Friday.
He would regularly visit food and drink establishments and generally coped very well with the distractions of these environments.
Andrew enjoyed many holidays whilst living at the home, including several week-long adventure holidays in the Lake District and on school trips. His family also felt more confident in their ability to take him on holiday themselves.
Throughout Andrew’s time at Links he maintained positive and meaningful contact with his family, returning home for overnight visits and every other weekend whenever possible.
We watched Andrew mature into a wonderful young man, with great promise and bags of potential for growth and development.
Andrew recently moved to a similar provision locally as an adult. The staff team at Links have high hopes for Andrew's future and believe that with consistency, time and patience, he will continue to further develop into adulthood as the young man that we are all so proud of.
