Working with Local Residential Homes to Provide Active Support

The Humber Transforming Care Partnership are providing an exciting opportunity. The Active Support Project is aiming to working with residential homes across Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire.

Hull Occupational Therapist, Danielle, East Riding Occupational Therapist, Annabel, and Assistant Psychologist, Luis, are working with two residential homes to implement active support.

Active Support underpins the effectiveness of positive behaviour support plan (PBSP). It encompasses a range of approaches which aims to provide enough support to enable people to participate successfully in domestic tasks, meaningful activities, and social opportunities so that they gain more control over their lives, develop more independence, and become more included as a valuable member of their community, irrespective of degree of intellectual disability or presence of challenging behaviour.

The project is offering a training package to all the staff members, as well as a dedicated coaching team to work proactively and collaboratively with the staff members, to embed this model of support within the service. As the staff members develop their knowledge and skills, this will alter the perception of care, moving from ‘caring for’ to ‘working with’. The increase of resident’s participation in their daily lives, aims to improve the quality of life for individuals living with learning disabilities. Active support is for everyone, no matter what the disability!

Occupational therapists are able to adapt the environment, break tasks down, promoting positive risk taking and establish the right support a resident need to participate. The coaching stage has just commenced and are already seeing positive changes. Residents have started to be involved in tasks, examples include washing up pots, making own drinks, washing hair, taking dirty clothes to washing machine.