Ells, who was our first tenant in Meadowbeck, Holdingham has physical disabilities and also has very complex speech, which means she can often find it hard to express herself. However, since being with us, she has shown incredible improvements. Ells has worked extremely hard with her Meadowbeck team and her Speech and Language team helping Ells utilise her communication iPad. Over the past eight months, she’s developed her ability to edit, upload and input exactly what she would like, which helps her convey her needs, wants and opinions.
This ability to communicate has come in handy when it comes to making friends with fellow housemates and asking to get a Disney-themed tattoo. She described her tattoo, an image of
a mermaid with the quote “I am part of your world”, as something that was “colourful and bright, like me”. She went on to explain that the staff who accompanied her “were helpful and made jokes to keep me laughing and gave me lots of compliments. They also got me a Costa drink to keep me going”
Her life at Meadowbeck is all about the choices she gets to make and the team that supports her with those decisions. That’s even down to resourcing her with a minibus that accommodates her wheelchair which facilitates Ells’ days out. At Glenholme we aim to make everyone feel safe and protected and it filled us with pride to hear Ells describe her relationship with the staff saying “They always talk to me and help me with my anxieties/upsets. I feel protected like someone in a Disney movie”. It’s a massive compliment to us but the credit goes to the team that works with her and for that we are grateful.
