Longmore Road is a specialist support service in Berkshire. It’s home to seven ladies, each with their own unique needs. From epilepsy and Angelman syndrome, to Bipolar disorder and end of life care, our team supports them with many additional physical and emotional health needs.
Early in 2024, our team at Longmore Road identified a unique opportunity. Active advocates for equal rights and inclusion, they jumped at the chance to collaborate with The Advocacy People, who delivered an informative session about health care to the ladies we support.
Visiting the service, they delivered a fun, interactive session with our ladies and their support team. A year later, we contacted our team at Longmore Road to uncover the impact of their session with The Advocacy People and what everyday health and happiness looks like at Longmore Road.
Highlighting health advocacy
Devoted to the people we support, Service Manager Linda was thrilled when The Advocacy People – a learning disability advocacy organisation – approached her about delivering a health advocacy session to our housemates at Longmore Road.
Putting the ladies we support at the heart of making this decision, Linda asked them if they’d like to participate in the session – it was an instant “yes”!
As a household, they love to get stuck in with activities, feel empowered about their health, and learn new things – they were extra excited about this session.
For the session, The Advocacy People came prepared to communicate information in line with the needs and preferences of the ladies we support. They used lots of different flash cards, featuring words relating to doctor surgeries and pictures of the different medical professionals who might work there. Paying extra attention to detail, the cards had even been tailored specifically to Longmore Road, showing photos of their local health centre and the people who work there!
The flash cards provided prompts for the people we support to discuss how they felt about the experience of going to the health centre. They were encouraged to freely express how they felt about sitting in the waiting room, whether they got the support they needed, and if they were given enough time for their appointments. Supported by our team, everyone openly talked about their experiences and confidently voiced their opinions.
The session also supported them to feel reassured and empowered about the health knowledge they already had. Throughout the session, our ladies at Longmore Road felt they were listened to and their opinions taken seriously. As strong advocates for everyday inclusion and equal rights, it was the best outcome Service Manager Linda could have hoped for!
The ladies we support are as close as sisters and look out for each other. If someone’s poorly, they all rally round and look after that person. They encourage each other to look after their health and they know lots about keeping happy and healthy, so seeing them feel reassured about this knowledge gave them such a confidence boost!
Linda Nielson, Service Manager, Longmore Road
Everyday advocacy
Every day, Linda and our team at Longmore Road ensure they advocate for the people we support in all areas of their life – including their health and wellbeing. Using person-centred care, they make sure the ladies we support receive care tailored to their unique needs and preferences.
With this approach, our team know the ladies at Longmore Road as individuals and can quickly spot when they aren’t quite feeling themselves.
Expertly trained and naturally compassionate, Linda and the team understand the value of good health. They always ensure the ladies we support are empowered to manage their health and get the medical support they need, when they need it.
Within the home, they promote good health as part of everyday life. By keeping active and embracing a healthy, balanced diet, they keep themselves in tip-top shape. And for some of our housemates at Longmore Road, this approach has had a deeper effect.
Ayesha’s achievement
When Ayesha first joined Longmore Road, she had a difficult relationship with food, using it to fight boredom and provide comfort. She was very overweight, and her support team knew this might be negatively impacting her physical health. They promoted individual choice but were passionate about supporting Ayesha to live a long, healthy, happy life.
So, they arranged for a dietitian to support her to make gradual changes in her diet. With the support of her support team and housemates, she was also encouraged to go for regular walks. At first, she could only walk a few feet before getting out of breath and seeking support from our team.
During the Covid lockdown, she gradually built up her activity levels every day. Eventually, she completed a sponsored walk and raised hundreds of pounds for charity. She also lost 30 kilograms in the process! Now, she sticks to regular meal times and walks, feels light and nimble, and can even run! Ayesha’s healthy and happy and continuing to smash goals at Longmore Road.
Ziela’s unexpected health journey
In 2020, Ziela was doing daily personal care when she found a lump on her breast. At the time, she wasn’t very aware of breast cancer, self-checking for lumps, or screening procedures and was very concerned. Understanding how scary this was for Ziela, our support team accompanied her to a doctor’s appointment.
Fortunately, Ziela’s lump wasn’t cancer. Even though she and her support team were relieved, it brought a new layer of awareness to them. They arranged for the breast nurse from their local hospital to visit their home and deliver a training session on self-checking for lumps and bumps.
Now, our housemates and our support team are all fully informed on how to self-check their breasts for signs of cancer and check up on each other to ensure they’re regularly checking for lumps, bumps, rashes, and sores.
Empowering the people we support, we even got Ziela involved in making a video about how to self-check for breast lumps yourself! This was shared with our other services across the country. Thanks to Ziela and the Longmore Road household, every lady in the Voyage Care family now has a handy resource demonstrating to them how to check their breasts!
Support at every stage
Our team at Longmore Road are experts in many areas of social care and support, including end of life care. They provide support and empowerment at every stage of life and ensure dignity and comfort in the final months and days.
As part of promoting health and happiness, the ladies we support at Longmore Road are encouraged to build close, loving relationships with each other and truly value personal connections and relationships. When they do lose a member of their family, our team approach the situation with sensitivity, respect, and positivity. They ensure the people they’ve loved and lost are still at the heart of the home and their memory lives on.
For Service Manager Linda, it’s important the ladies we support are fully informed about all aspects of health and life. From transparency around cancer, to what happens towards the end of life, she ensures our ladies are empowered by open, honest communication.
“Having good relationships with people and encouraging that relationship is healthy. We don’t just erase someone’s memory because they aren’t physically here. We don’t stop talking about them or take down their photos. They’re still part of our home, part of our family. Losing a member of our home affects the team too, but they know it’s important to sensitively support the ladies to understand this is what happens, it’s part of life. They deserve the opportunity to build acceptance around it.”
Continued commitment
Longmore Road benefits from a passionate team who are committed to continuous professional development, ensuring the ladies we support have the best care possible. This includes seeking additional training on top of the comprehensive training they receive as part of their roles.
So far, they’ve organised bipolar disorder training with a Psychologist, so they can more effectively support one of our ladies at Longmore Road. Over a few sessions, the Psychologist supported them to understand how Bipolar disorder might influence different behaviours, how someone might be affected by different situations, and how to support someone to achieve positive outcomes.
They’ve also had pressure care training, end of life training, and ulcer management training and they’re not stopping there! One of the ladies we support has Angelman syndrome – a rare genetic disorder affecting the nervous system – and the team would like to do specialist training on this in the future. They enjoy learning new things as much as the ladies we support do!
With dedication and heart, the ladies at Longmore Road and their team create a community where health, happiness, and respect are at the centre of everything they do. We’re proud to support these incredible women every step of the way.
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