For nearly 20 years there has been a move away from long-term institutional care to ordinary living in communities across Scotland. Government policies emphasised the need to close long-stay hospitals and provide specialist support to help people with complex difficulties to integrate into their local community.
However, there are people prejudiced against those with learning disabilities, perhaps through ignorance or fear. It takes a certain approach to help people on both sides of the divide to overcome this.
“Many people with learning disabilities find that society's attitude towards them, and the barriers this produces, causes them more difficulty than their disability,” says Anne MacDonald of the care organisation, The Richmond Fellowship Scotland.
“Activities that most people take for granted, such as meeting people, catching a bus, having a girlfriend or boyfriend and going to the cinema, can be hard for someone who has a learning disability.”
Anne knew she wanted to work in the caring sector since high school. As a student of history and English at Glasgow University, she volunteered for work with charities in caring for people with special needs.
“My first paid job after University was as a support worker with Eastpark home in Maryhill in Glasgow. I learned a lot there, and moved to other social care organisations and, later, was promoted to a management post. Still, the emphasis of my work was to help people with learning disabilities and support to the staff who worked with them directly.”
Anne later managed a day care centre for people with behaviour difficulties.
“You have to understand that a lot of the sometimes seemingly alarming behaviour of people with special needs is borne of frustration, she says.
“When people don’t understand you, it can get frustrating. But this can sometimes come across as aggression to people who don’t understand.”
As Anne found herself in more mentoring and managerial posts, she decided to formalise her skills with a qualfication.
“My degree was a broad one that I felt would allow me greater scope,” she says, “but I wanted to study at the Tizard Centre in Canterbury which has a tremendous reputation.”
She made a radical decision to leave her job, sell her house and move to Canterbury. “It was easier because I was young and single at the time”.
Armed with an MSc in behavioural studies, Anne was ideal to head a team of behavioural specialists in a new project by The Richmond Fellowship Scotland.
As one of the largest providers of social care in the country, the charity provides community based services for more than 2000 people who require support in their lives, either due to mental health difficulties, learning disabilities or autism.
It employs more than 2000 staff including support staff, managers, trainers and administrative staff.
“My job is to train and support behaviour specialist staff,” Anne says. “Sometimes, it just takes a fresh point of view to see another way of helping a person through difficulties.
“You need an understanding of why people behave the way they do in certain situations. The buzz you get from helping someone learn a new phrase or sign, learn to swim, get a job or make a friend is unquantifiable.
“I love my job. Helping people make that transition from being in care – sometimes all of their lives – to move into their own flat, making friends, go out for coffee, have their own money to spend and decide what to have for dinner is just such a fulfilling job.
“That is why we are excited about the new service in Cambuslang. It is an opportunity to show what people with learning disabilities can achieve with the right support.
“People in communities can be unwelcoming, often because they are fearful or don’t have experience of people who are different. Our staff will work to ensure that individuals develop relationships with neighbours, who often change from being negative to helpful and encouraging. Workers will have their own clients whom they support as part of a caring team. This means working shifts and being part of a sleepover rota. They may support individuals to go out and about shopping or dealing with a benefits issue or taking them to work and back. Or they may just decide to go to the movies.”
“For that role, the credentials needed are more personality based rather than paper qualifications but we have an ethos of continuing support in terms of ongoing training, management training, research studies and generally giving our staff the tools to do their job better as well as map out a career which can take them into management posts and further academic study. We are also planning to expand our remit into other challenging areas of work, and to remain a dynamic organisation that responds to individual need, providing person-centred support, and promoting inclusion.”
For more information about our new service in Cambuslang click here.
This article was originally published by The Herald newapaper on 15th August 2008.