Charlie’s Story
Charlie is an outgoing young man who is larger than life. Before coming to Kisimul’s Acacia Hall, Charlie’s relationship with family members had suffered; he had been excluded from the classroom for four years and was leading a somewhat isolated life at a full-time respite facility. Despite his family’s best efforts, Charlie was struggling to manage his anxiety and behaviour. Less than a year after joining Acacia Hall, Charlie is participating in the classroom full-time, has formed friendships with other young people he lives with, and has rebuilt his relationship with his family…..
Charlie, aged 17, lived with his parents and two sisters until February 2021. Charlie’s family had worked tirelessly to support his complex needs, but as he went through puberty, his behaviour became challenging, and as he became much bigger and stronger, it was becoming increasingly difficult for his family to manage.
During the Covid 19 lockdowns, the situation escalated; Charlie was unable to access school or his weekly respite service, which was incredibly frustrating for Charlie, and resulted in even more challenging behaviour, especially towards his parents.
Despite returning to school and some respite care in September 2020, Charlie’s anxiety and behaviour remained an issue and had a significant impact on his family’s mental health. Charlie’s behaviour towards peers and staff at school meant he had to be excluded from the classroom. He soon became isolated from his peers, and his school day involved following his own agenda, watching YouTube and DVDs on his laptop.
Charlie started residing at his place of respite full time from 16th February 2021 and shared an entire wing of the house with just one other young person with whom he had limited interaction. Charlie’s parents visited most weekends, but Charlie’s anxiety and behaviour were heightened during the visits, and they would typically last between just 10-20 minutes.
When Charlie was referred to Kisimul’s Acacia Hall school and residential home, his parents were impressed at the facilities but were very concerned with how Charlie would adapt to group living at Acacia Hall and how staff would cope with Charlie’s outbursts.
The Acacia team carefully planned Charlie’s transition by liaising with his parents and the staff at the respite home and reading his previous assessments and reports. They identified that Charlie would need to freely access a quieter personal space in his new home environment should the living areas become too busy for him. It was noted that before living at the respite facility, Charlie could
integrate within a small group of mixed genders, so a suitable cohort was identified for Charlie. It was also apparent that building bonds with familiar staff was important to Charlie; he could quickly become anxious and frustrated if those supporting him did not know his interests (computer games). A small core of experienced staff was selected to get to know and support Charlie. They even visited him in his family home to become familiar with each other before making the transition.
The process to re-integrate Charlie back into education started the day after he moved into Acacia Hall. With space and time given for Charlie to process his new surroundings and lots of verbal reassurance from staff, he began to join his class. Charlie now attends full-time education during term times and has engaged well with classwork and being in a small class group. Charlie’s mum and dad commented, “Charlie’s whole secondary school experience was poor, and we were convinced that a placement at Acacia Hall would fail. Oh, my word, were we wrong and so delighted to have been proved wrong! Our son is going to school every day and doing schoolwork, not just the bits he wants to do; he’s doing a huge variety of activities and going on a minibus with his peers, something he’s not done for 3.5 years! The communication between us and the classroom and residential staff has been amazing. We will be forever grateful that the staff have listened to all our concerns and never made us feel excluded from Charlie’s life, which helped us cope with the distress of Charlie being so far away from home.”
In less than a year, Charlie has made great progress and is happy, much to his parent’s delight. He is more actively engaged in his own life – participating in intrinsically enjoyable activities and functional tasks that promote independence. His social interaction has improved immensely; Charlie now perceives visits from his family as a source of fun and emotional safety. He responds to requests and has a greater tolerance for those around him. He has even formed some mutual friendships with peers in his living area. Charlie’s mum and dad said, “eight months from joining Acacia Hall, and there is such a change in him. He is a confident young man who has made friends, one young man especially. He’s completely off one of his medications, has lost over 2.5 stone, and most importantly, his relationship with his sisters and us has improved. All this in such a short time. We cannot praise and thank the Kisimul staff enough for everything they do for ourselves and, of course, for Charlie.”
