Cascade Brochure - Flipbook - Page 15
Resident case studies
“The past can hurt.
But the way I see it, you
can either run from it,
or learn from it."
- Rafiki, The Lion King
AT's Story
One of our longest residents, AT, initially visited
Cascade for one day a week. He’s now with us
from Monday to Friday - that is, when he’s not
got work to do!
Often mischievous, quite physical and constantly
on the move, AT sometimes misunderstood social
boundaries. A fan of Disney, he would dramatically
grab people in a playful way, and occasionally put
them in headlocks, with any discouragement often
misinterpreted. That’s until we introduced ‘Social
Stories’ with the help of one our team
of psychologists.
Social Stories were created by Carol Gray in 1991.
They are brief and clear descriptions of a particular
situation, event or activity, which include specific
information about what can be expected in that
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situation and why. With AT, they have had remarkable
results. The stories we developed integrated AT’s
favourite characters behaving in a desired way, with
the hope AT understood this and adopted this into
his everyday routines.
An early breakthrough was with AT’s quite complex
eating habits which predominantly involved eating
'round-foods', like pizza, peas and Smiley Faces. Now,
he eats foods of all flavours and shapes.
As AT’s behaviour continued to improve, Cascade
staff and AT’s social worker liaised with 'Worklink'
(work-based training scheme), who took him
on a full-time placement. Most recently, he has
successfully started paid work, a clear indication of
his massive transformation.
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