69 Castleton Avenue
About
Hollyfield Avenue is one of the supported living facilities of Salisbury Support 4 Autism Ltd, situated in a quiet residential area in Friern Barnet, with only a few minutes distance from many important services like doctors, dentists, opticians, Barnet Council house, hospitals, supermarkets, local food and other shops, council allotments etc.
The area also has some nice and quiet places which may provide a suitable environment to people with autism and Asperger’s for visit and leisure purposes such as:
- Amusement parks
- Alexandra Palace
- Ice rink
- Art museum
- Finchley Lido Leisure Centre which offers a gym, swimming pool with wave effect every half an hour
- Cinema
- Bowling
- Snooker
- Various lunch out places etc.
The area is well connected with many bus services, tube and train stations.
Hollyfield service has a house with five good size bedrooms, huge garden, big kitchen and dining areas, good size living room and hallways. Out of the five bedrooms, one is an ensuite. The house includes a toilet at the ground floor, a toilet and bath at the first floor and a toilet and shower at the second floor. It is fitted with smoke alarms and fire equipment. At present we have 4 residents with moderate to high functioning autism, occupying the home.
Our Aim
We aim to provide our service users with:
- person-centred support
- appropriate behaviour support
- health action plans
- a range of recreational activities of their interests for their enhanced quality of life
- health and wellbeing to improve their daily skills, to safeguard them from vulnerability and to reduce their challenging behaviour, securing service users’ health and safety, data, dignity and rights.
How we Work
At Hollyfield, we have service users ranging from moderate to high functioning autism and our pattern of work depends on their:
- diagnosis
- personalised care or support needs
- medical profile
- behaviours
- level of learning disability and understanding
- level of challenging behaviours
- level of mental capacity and decision making
- level of functioning.
For our high functioning people, we provide all services and activities mentioned above but more support is given in the form of:
- counselling
- 1:1 discussion sessions on a day to day basis to promote appropriate choices, understanding, health and safety
- decision making for various situations.
For our moderate functioning people, we also provide all services and activities mentioned above but more support is given for:
- best interest meetings with parents and other professionals
- safeguarding them from vulnerability on a day to day basis
- 1:1 picture storey sessions
- PECS to promote appropriate choices and understanding
- health and safety and decision making.
For our high functioning people, we also give telephone support at regular intervals when they are out in the community alone, to ensure their safety, and give appropriate advice on various situations.
1:1 Sessions
At Hollyfield, we offer a wide spectrum of services aiming to meet personalised needs and choices of our residents. To do so, each service user is allocated a key worker who supports them to develop person-centred plans, person-centred structures of the day which can fit in with their best interests and choices, visual and written time tables and prompts, behaviour action and health action plans.
Our Services
Our services aim to:
- support service users to use their capabilities and strengths to the maximum and achieve the most possible independence
- support them to choose and establish a well-planned daily routine for themselves
- support them to choose, buy and eat healthy food
- support them to maintain their personal hygiene, health and safety
- support them to appropriately budget their money and spend correctly, making sure it lasts till the next supply
- support them to choose community activities from a range of options and carry them out
- support them to be more independent in daily skills and other needs, depending upon their mental capacity and functioning
- support them to choose and make their support plans, best suitable to their interests and needs (person-centred)
- support them to participate in residents’ meetings and socialise with others as well as explore their interests
- support with their daily medicines
- support them to book and go for regular medical check-ups.
- support them to manage their behaviour and make them and others safe when they are in a highly challenging mood.
- support them in group activities or during sessions in the colleges (or special colleges) or during different therapy sessions like music therapy, sensory therapy etc.
- support them to get resources needed for daily living and activities
- support them with cooking and enhance their cooking skills
- support them to maintain existing skills and learn new skills (daily skills or skills required for activities)
- support them to find a college course of their liking and apply for it
- support them to find a personal tutor and arrange sessions with them for their areas of interests for example language courses or painting and art and craft
- support them to find voluntary or paid work in their areas of interest
- support them to regularly visit their friends and family and enhance their social life
- plan and give them social stories and 1:1 discussion sessions with key workers or other professionals for them to understand and help cope with various day to day situations and challenging behaviours.
Map
Team Overview
The team members are well trained in various areas like At Hollyfield, we have an enthusiastic and committed team with 10 hardworking, reliable and competent team members.
- Medicine
- Administration
- SCIP
- Fire control
- Infection control
- Food hygiene
- Understanding autism
- Safeguarding vulnerable adults
- Whistleblowing
- Mental capacity
- DOLS
The team members believe in the shared vision and values which gives the team a great working advantage and means they are always willing to go the extra mile for our service user’s safety and benefit. The members have the potential of resolving conflicts productively and by justification and are very good at advocating for our service users and helping them resolve their issues.
The team has good communication skills and has built good relationships and rapport with service users and other external agencies and professionals. They are very creative, dealing with unseen situations safely and they believe in helping each other. The team members are also fun-loving and jolly and make the work environment comfortable for all staff and service users alike.
Achievements
One of our residents had a history of severe challenging behaviour with staff and members of the public when he moved to the service. With the provision of lots of choices for activities, daily routines and consistent support, the incidents are now significantly reduced and our service user enjoys most of the community activities with all staff members.
Another resident had diabetes, a severely unhealthy diet, drinking only fizzy drinks and not drinking water at all. He also had a history of becoming challenging upon trying to support him choose healthier eating options. Doctors asked staff to support and help him lose some weight and manage his diet to prevent his diabetes from progressing to injections. With staff support to help him understand the importance of exercise and diet with regular 1:1 sessions and social stories, he managed to lose 17 kg in 2 months, started drinking water frequently and his sugar levels are under control in latest reports.
