Naseem's Story

1st January 2012

Tags: autism, epilepsy, smoking, st. andrews

The wards at St. Andrews Healthcare in Birmingham have been undergoing some changes recently and with the introduction of a new women’s facility, the autism ward was being moved upstairs.  This meant that the needs and challenges of all patients needed to be reassessed.  Naseem has been living at St. Andrews for some time, although he has also lived at several other facilities over the years. 

Naseem felt secure at St. Andrews.  He liked the ethos and the staff there understood his need for routine and worked with him closely to make sure he was given the best care.  But as Naseem has epilepsy as well as autism, the hospital staff felt that going up and down stairs to the smoking area all day would be too much of a risk. The Commissioners agreed that Naseem needed to be moved.

Another hospital was happy to have Naseem, but when he heard the news Naseem became extremely agitated.  He had been very anxious since hearing that he was being relocated anyway, but he had stayed with the proposed new provider before and wasn’t happy with the care he had been given.  Having worked with VoiceAbility for some time, he was now calling his advocate two or three times a day with his concerns.  The staff reported that there had been an increase in anxiety and Naseem was very emotional over the issue.

Within the new Autism Strategy currently being launched, the Government have stressed the importance of adults with autism being given the right support to choose how and where they live.  Our advocates spoke to the commissioners, the staff and a solicitor to find out Naseem’s options and discovered that there was another St. Andrews facility in Nottinghamshire that had a smoking area within the Autism area, taking away the risk posed by Naseem’s epilepsy.

Naseem decided that, even though he would still have preferred to stay where he was, staying within St. Andrews was something that he was prepared to do.  His place was agreed and he has now moved into his new home.

Whenever Naseem is upset and agitated, he phones his advocate.  So monitoring the number of times he calls means that we can measure how he is feeling.  After it was agreed that the move to Nottinghamshire would take place, Naseem was calling us less, with his calls being focussed on potential changes to his routine.  Now he’s settling into his new home, he has called only once, to check whether a particular process was right and ending up chatting to us about other things. Naseem has stated to all the staff in Birmingham that he has spoken to when he has phoned up his previous ward that ‘he is settling in well in his new placement’’

Having been able to make a decision himself about what was going to work for him put Naseem in control.  He was able to make the commissioners and staff understand exactly what he needed; he’s now much more relaxed and happy with his world.