David's Story
Person-centred Active Support
David has been living at a house run by United Response in Middlesex for the last ten years. He has a severe learning disability and presents behaviour which makes it difficult for him to engage in activities.
David’s support workers have always found it difficult to get David interested and involved in things, but have used Person-centred Active Support to find ways of helping him to become more engaged.
Working one-to-one with David, they have learned that planning activities in advance, cutting out lots of verbal communication and using really clear gestures and objects of reference means that David can get more involved in small steps throughout activities.
Staff have seen a real increase in David’s skills and level of engagement over the last two to three years. David now takes part in several household activities such as doing the laundry, putting rubbish bins out, buying groceries, laying the table, carrying plates and wiping the table. He has also become more confident.
David has given permission for his story and photograph to be used.