06 May 2021
Oliver Is 26 years old man diagnosed with Epilepsy, Autistic Spectrum Disorder, and Learning disabilities. His disabilities impact greatly on this day-to-day living, in particular his social interaction.
Before joining Magic Life, Oliver was withdrawn and presented with challenging behaviours.
Oliver joined Magic Life’s Devonshire Lodge in 2019 and for a time He was unsettled and nervous of people. This would be true for anyone, let alone someone with multiple disabilities.
The following months saw the team at Magic Life, build relationships with Oliver and his confidence started growing in them. Quickly the team learned his likes and dislikes, his interests, and abilities one of which was his social interaction.
The team decided to try Oliver using a bus and a train. At first, he was nervous and he slowly started to relax and comfortable and started showing signs of joy and happiness.
Oliver was really making improvements and he was enjoying life in the community. He loves going to the park where there is a climbing wall which he loves to climb. He enjoyed his daily routines and we started planning more activities for him, but in January 2021 we experienced a major setback. Oliver experienced a series of epileptic seizures, which affected his presentation and safety.
This meant that Oliver was unable to join in activities that he enjoyed doing. We were worried as this unfortunately affected the new routine that he developed, but with the amazing support from the management team and staff at Devonshire, we created a multidisciplinary team which included GP, Epilepsy nurse, psychiatrist, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist, and psychologist.
With input from all the professionals, we have started to make slow progress again, with having new medication introduced and regular meetings and visits to support Oliver to the best of our abilities.
Very recently we tried Oliver on a staff members bicycle and were thrilled to see how easily he took to it. He looked so happy riding the bike that the Devonshire Lodge team started looking at ways to get him his own bike. Within days the team had managed to get Oliver his own bike.
Watching him receive his own bike and riding completely independently is such a joy to watch. We will be looking to book Oliver on Pedal Power so he can enjoy riding a bike.
Every day the team at Devonshire continue to find out new things Oliver enjoys and do. He has been with Devonshire for over 2 years, and we have all seen a lot of progress. Oliver enjoys social interactions with others, his challenging behaviour has reduced, Oliver has become outgoing, and he expresses excitement and joy in day-to-day life.
And now with his new bike can feel the freedom of cycling.
By Hollie Ferguson
