Meet Conor, an autistic adult who has joined our Catrine Bank supported living service.

At Catrine Bank, Conor is supported by our expert staff in a low arousal, autism-friendly environment. Conor quickly settled into his new flat, and he enjoys spending time there. He regularly uses our other facilities, including the sensory room and art room, and he enjoys walking around the grounds. Conor has also responded well to his new peers and his supporting staff members. 

When using a talking mat to describe his time at Catrine Bank, Conor said that he likes his house, food and drink, time to relax, the workers and going out and about. 

Before joining Catrine Bank 

When Conor turned 18, he moved into one of our supported living services, where he happily spent the next four years of his life. But in 2015, Conor and his twin brother moved to a different supported living placement with a new service provider. Conor’s new environment very quickly proved to be unsuitable to his needs. This resulted in him leaving the house without support, leading to safeguarding concerns.

Conor’s parents felt that this environment did not fully suit his needs and that the placement lacked the structure Conor needed to reduce his anxiety. They believe that this led to an increase in Conor’s distressed behaviour. 

Sadly, in 2018, Conor was detained under the Mental Health Act and was admitted to a mental health assessment and treatment ward. The staff in this ward had no autism-specific knowledge or training, and Conor was in his bedroom for 23 hours a day. Prescribed high levels of anti-psychotic medication, his mental health was badly affected. At one point, Conor shaved all his hair off and his mum saw him crying while looking at himself in the mirror.

Contacting the National Autistic Society 

Conor’s parents reached out to our team at Catrine Bank, to see if it would be possible for Conor to return to a National Autistic Society supported living service. Our assessment process found that, although Catrine Bank had the staffing expertise and support services to safely support Conor, there was no suitable accommodation to provide a living area for Conor at that time. So, in order to meet Conor’s needs, a refurbishment process was undertaken over the next nine months, where a bespoke single-occupancy living area was built for him.

To help Conor to prepare for the transition to Catrine Bank, our team gave Conor social stories to show him what the process of moving home would be like, in terms he could understand. The team involved in Conor’s assessment believed that that if we provided Conor with a secure and consistent place to live, this would reduce his anxiety and restore his trust in his support, and allow him to ‘restart’ his life and enjoy activities and social engagement once more.

Transitioning to Catrine Bank

Conor has coped with the move to Catrine Bank extremely well, and immediately showed a renewed engagement with support. Right from the start of the move, Conor’s distressed behaviour significantly reduced. As we had hoped, a combination of the environment and consistent support has reduced his anxieties and greatly improved his quality of life.

On the first day of Conor’s placement, he was supported to go to the local shop. Now he regularly goes there to buy his favourite magazine, Radio Times, and he has been on many trips to charity shops with staff members. 

Conor appears very happy at Catrine Bank, and his family are extremely pleased that he now has the quality of life he deserves.