Jason

Jason is a man in his 60’s who we started working with in 2019. When we first met him, it was clear that there was some severe self-neglect and that he was a hoarder. He had attempted suicide 3 times and was reluctant to leave the house. He had some physical problems and was on quite a long list of medication both for this and for his depression and anxiety.

Jason’s home was not a nice place for him to be and this is something that he really wanted to work on first. So, in the spirit of ELT values being based on doing things with people rather than for them, he got to work with his support worker, organising his home environment. We helped him get a skip delivered and set to work de-cluttering and supporting him to get rid of things in his home that he did not want or need anymore. He also disclosed that he had not changed his bedding in almost a year, so we offered to take him to Dunelm and help him choose some nice new bedding which he said he was really excited about.

Once his home environment was more manageable for him, we supported him to maintain this as it had gotten so bad we had found rat droppings in his flat.

As time went on and his mental health improved this was something that became easier for him, however, he has stated he would always like to be prompted when it comes to his home environment as he knows if we don’t support him with this he will ‘go downhill.’

Money management is something that he has also struggled with. He was in substantial debt so he and his support worker attended meetings with HARC and CAB to get him to a place that he could start paying off his debts, something that he believes played a big role in his suicidal ideologies.

Jason had said that almost every area of his life needed attention, so that is what we did, slowly and steadily over the years supporting him to face and overcome one challenge at a time.

Jason was using a wheelchair due to back problems, but this seemed to improve along with his mental health. He expressed a wish to get into walking so he and his support worker would drive down to the seafront and walk, gradually building up to walking for over an hour.

Jason explained to us that he has a teenage son who he was not in contact with due to his poor mental health and the fact that his son has behavioural problems. After a couple of years of support, he felt he was ready to build on his relationship with his son again and now he has him to stay one weekend a month.

He has also come off most of his medication and no longer uses a wheelchair. He now has his own vehicle and is holding down a part time job.

His hours have been slowly coming down over the last year. His (and our) goal is to eventually not need support from ELT anymore though he knows he will always be able to reach out to us if he needs support.