Nurse-led Homecare Kathleen’s journey home
Meet Kathleen
Scottish born Kathleen is 56 years old and now lives in Leicester. She loves socialising with people, spending time with her family and before her injury, was a keen traveller.
In 2017, Kathleen was enjoying a night out with friends and family until she collapsed. When the paramedics arrived, they found her gasping for breath and struggling with a possible heart attack. She went into hospital and received a brain scan, which showed a large amount of blood in the ventricular system of the brain, a swelling on the brain and two aneurysms. Kathleen was diagnosed with a brain injury.
After a tough year moving between hospital, she continued her recovery in a neurological rehabilitation facility in Leicester. Kathleen was unable to talk, stand up, and needed support with transfers and personal care. Her lack of mobility and the ongoing search for a suitable care agency meant she could not return home full time to her husband Shaun. Kathleen and her family were keen to overcome these challenges to bring her home.
Taking the first step with Voyage Specialist Healthcare
Leicestershire Clinical Commissioning Group approached Voyage Specialist Healthcare in January 2020. Hannah, a Training Nursing Associate at Voyage Care, and her manager visited Kathleen and Shaun to conduct an initial assessment. In this assessment, they chatted about what Kathleen enjoys doing, what her goals are and the steps we could take to help these to be achieved.
“It was clear that a lot of work would be required in supporting Kathleen’s recovery at home. The first goal was for her to come home full time, and then the second goal was that she could stand up and walk. “
Hannah, Training Nursing Associate
Our care began, and we had high hopes of what we could achieve together.
Making progress
Over the past two years, Hannah, the Voyage Specialist Healthcare team and the physiotherapists set carefully selected goals with Kathleen for her to reach. Kathleen surpassed each goal with great success! As a result of weekly physiotherapy sessions and support from our specialist team, Kathleen increased her physical strength. This drastically improved her day-to-day life and mental health. Kathleen can now complete tasks independently; this includes carrying out 95% of her personal care by herself!
With the help of the physiotherapy and lots of communication, Kathleen’s pain management is more effective, and she no longer requires daily medication because of her improved strength.
One of Kathleen’s goals that was extremely important to her was to be able to stand unaided. With each physiotherapy sessions and exercises, Kathleen got closer and closer to achieving this. Kathleen can now stand up for long periods of time with little support! This has led to her confidence and independence improving.
What’s next
Now Kathleen has been able to achieve her two main goals, we’ve worked together to step her next steps. These new goals include advancing her speech and language. Although there is a long way to go, due to the Kathleen’s hard work and our team support, she can say and write new words, plus recognise colours. With her improving ability, she has now found a love for colouring and drawing. She recently drew and painted a bird that is framed on her bedroom wall as a reminder of just how far she has come!
The future is looking exciting for Kathleen and her family. With ongoing speech and language development, plus increasing strength, Kathleen’s confidence and independence will continue to increase.
Here at Voyage Specialist Healthcare, we are so proud to have supported Kathleen’s recovery process over the past two years and look forward to continuing this journey with her.
Want to learn more about Voyage Specialist Healthcare?
Voyage Specialist Healthcare is part of the wide Voyage Care group. Here, we provide tailored nurse-led care and support within your own home and in the community. To find out more, please visit our webpage.
To contact our friendly enquiry team, please phone 0800 0353 776 or email referrals@voyagecare.com.
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