Learning disabilities Margaret’s story: Managing a learning disability with anxiety
Meet Margaret!
Margaret is a person we support at Treddinoch, our residential care home in Falkirk, Scotland. She has been enjoying living at the home for almost five years.
Margaret is a caring person who likes to spend time singing, dancing and socialising with her friends, but she also suffers from severe anxiety alongside her learning disability. It’s taken her a lot of strength to become the sociable person she is today.
Since joining Voyage Care, Margaret has worked with her support team to create a person-centred plan, which has since enabled her to make tremendous progress in managing her anxiety and improving her overall health and wellbeing.
Managing emotions to combat anxiety
When Margaret first arrived at Treddinoch in 2018, she struggled with her emotions and often displayed challenging behaviours which would increase her anxiety.
It was important for Margaret to build positive relationships with the people around her. To help her to feel comfortable in her new home, her support team gradually integrated Margaret with her housemates and encouraged her to partake in group activities during her transition process. They also took her shopping to buy new furniture to make her room her own.
Now, Margaret is very comfortable in her new surroundings and has formed great relationships with the people she lives with; so much so that she often talks about her new friends to her family members. This is a huge step for Margaret and she’s slowly been able to recognise others and their needs.
Margaret’s support team identified that her emotions could often be the trigger for challenging behaviour, so they worked with her to find ways that she could self-manage her emotions. Over time, Margaret has learnt to recognise when she is having low moods and will choose to spend time in her room to reflect on her thoughts. She has also built on her relationship with her support team and will ask for help with problem solving or expressing her emotions. As a result, her overall levels of anxiety have decreased significantly.
Adopting a healthier lifestyle
Margaret’s person-centred plan was tailored to her individual needs and goals. Alongside her mental wellbeing, she also wanted to improve her physical health and live a healthier lifestyle. By encouraging Margaret to make better lifestyle choices, she’s now at a healthy weight and has gone from being diabetic to pre-diabetic!
This change has made such a positive impact on her overall health, including reducing her anxiety. Another benefit to this is that Margaret has developed some new skills such as learning to cook healthier meals, helping her to live a more independent lifestyle.
A better life at Treddinoch
Margaret enjoys living at Treddinoch and has made life-changing progress since she moved in. The consistency and continuity of her person-centred plan, with the help of her support team, has encouraged her to self-manage her progress. She is now able to understand other people’s feelings whilst managing her own, and she regularly offers support to people when they are feeling sad or upset.
Margaret’s self-confidence has also improved, mostly due to her healthier lifestyle which has had a huge impact on her health and emotional wellbeing.
This has led to developing her independence, with Margaret building an active social life. She now takes part in regular activities including weekly visits to the social club where she meets friends, has a coffee and plays bingo. She also enjoys attending a monthly awakening nightclub where she gets to spend time with her friends, to enjoy singing and dancing together.
Find out more about our residential care services
To learn more about Treddinoch and how we can support you, a loved one or a client to live their best lives, fill in our quick and easy enquiry form and a member of our team will be in touch!
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