A life transformed: Karen’s journey

Almost two years ago we started supporting a lady called Karen. Previously, she had been living in an ATU and showed extreme challenging behaviour such as breaking windows and assaulting staff.

Karen is profoundly deaf and uses British Sign Language to communicate. Yet not a single member of staff in the ATU could use British Sign Language.

She felt alone, frustrated and totally misunderstood which lead to her acting out.  She would then be heavily medicated to deal with her behaviours. It was very much a vicious cycle.

Fast forward two years, and by using person-centred support and PBS techniques she is now a completely different person – entirely independent, able to cook, clean and go shopping for herself and even go on holiday for the first time ever without her family.

Karen’s brother Michael even now works for us as a support worker!

We are so proud of Karen and her support team. So we wanted to share this video which highlights just how far she has come over the past 12 months.