Jamie Tucker

Before moving into supported accommodation, Jamie had been regularly accessing Rocky Bay’s respite services. His family had been considering Supported Independent Living (SIL) homes, but like many families, found the idea difficult.

“I couldn’t ever imagine it happening, to be honest,” Linda said. “But all my other children grew up and left home and he was stuck with us. I just felt he deserved more than that.”

Rocky Bay Team Leader, Laura Fellowes, said finding the right home is a careful process, with plenty of opportunities to visit the house so that it becomes familiar, and chances to meet and get to know the other housemates.

“I know that when parents are transitioning their kids into supported accommodation, they can have a lot of guilt around it, because they’ve obviously cared for their child for a long time. When Jamie and his family first came to visit, we got to know each other a little bit and talked about what the transition experience looked like. And then from there, his mum and stepdad decided that yes, it would be a good fit for Jamie, and we started the transition process. It can take as long or as short as is needed. For Jamie, It took about six weeks.”

To help Jamie in the lead up to the move, staff uploaded a photo of his new home onto his communication device.

“His community staff would say, ‘Jamie, what would you like to do today?’ and he’d be clicking on his new house,” Laura said. “That was a really positive thing because if he didn’t want to come here, he definitely wouldn’t.”

Linda quickly noticed the same enthusiasm.

“He was just asking all the time to go to the house and signing ‘friends, friends’,” she said.

Making home, home

For Laura, creating a genuine sense of home is an important part of any successful transition. Before move-in day, the team personalised his room and put some of his possessions around the house.

“When Jamie came to visit, he knew which was his room, that it was his space,” said Laura.

Jamie now shares his unit with two other residents, including housemate Nathan.

“We look at similar interests when we decide which home is best suited,” Laura said. “We look at their personalities and see whether they would click. And we’d know that in the early stages of transition when he’s visiting the house. We look at how they interact with each other and look out for any warning signs that they might not get along. We also work with the other housemates to make sure that they are prepared and comfortable with a new person in their home.

We gave Nathan photos of Jamie, and put them out in the house and said ‘Oh there’s your friend Jamie, he’s going to come and visit and then live here. After a couple of weeks of saying this, when it came to Jamie’s initial visit, Nathan already had a sense of familiarity, and it was smooth sailing.”

She said that the pair have formed a close friendship.

“Jamie and Nathan love watching movies together,” said Laura. “However, where Nathan likes his space, Jamie’s very affectionate and loves giving out the hugs!”

Despite a successful transition, Laura explained that it was quite normal to have a few teething problems along the way.

“Obviously it’s a brand new environment, so the first night in a new house can be scary,” she said. “We have three staff in the morning, three in the afternoon, and then one at night. So that’s a lot of new people. The only person that ever did personal care with Jamie previously was his mum, and now he’s potentially got seven different people a day.

And then there might be a few hiccups at the start while we’re learning about Jamie – what he likes, doesn’t like, his routine, how he communicates. That’s been one of the biggest challenges for us because he didn’t have a speech pathologist in place when he first moved in. So we were all just learning on the spot really, which could have caused some frustration for Jamie, understandably. But now since he’s moved in, I regularly receive messages from Linda saying, ‘oh, we dropped Jamie off after lunch on Sunday and he seems very settled and happy’ which is nice.”

One of the biggest positives since moving into supported accommodation has been Jamie’s increased independence, and Rocky Bay team members have worked alongside him to build confidence in daily living skills.

“It took some gently encouraging, because he had almost 30 years of someone doing everything for him,” said Laura. “Active support has been such a big factor in the success of him participating in daily living activities. It’s been really positive seeing him develop confidence in his independent living skills.”

Jamie now helps with his laundry, prepares his own lunches and takes part in household tasks. Laura sent photos of Jamie helping out around the house and said that his mum was shocked and amazed!

“He just does everything himself,” she said. “Just little things like washing his hands properly without prompting, putting his washing in the machine, doing every little thing himself. He just seems a lot more confident and a bit more mature.”

For Jamie, independence is only part of the story. The team have also seen Jamie become more willing to participate in group activities.

“The team really struggled to get him to engage in group activities before, so many of his activities were house-based,” Laura said. “Now he’s attending a music group on a Thursday and getting involved – dancing, laughing and interacting with other people.”

While Jamie adapted quickly, Linda admits the transition was much harder for her.

“I was a wreck,” she said, “an absolute wreck. It was like someone had died. It was awful. I’d walk in his room and be in tears. But I could touch base with Laura just to know he was okay. I was reassured and I felt everyone listened and cared about how I felt. It gave me confidence. I think it was all more of a shock to me than Jamie! But parents should be prepared because it was a lot harder than I thought – it’s like you’ve lost your purpose somehow.”

Linda explained about the ways in which life had changed.

“There was a lot to do in the mornings because he was incontinent and he used to make quite a mess,” she said. “So it was a couple of hours of work every morning, like washing and getting him ready for the day, and making his lunch. So suddenly that was taken away. And then the house is all quiet. It was hard. I had a lot of support from friends and I had things I could do, but I found I was tidying up a lot in the mornings because I still got up really early like I did for Jamie, and I still do. I just suddenly had all this time, and I’m thinking ‘what am I going to do?”