Life after trauma

Article by Kimberley Cockram, Deputy Manager of Nottingham Support at Home

Working closely with community mental health services, FitzRoy’s Nottingham Supported Living team is helping to transform the life of 42 year old Alice, a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder sufferer. Alice lives alone so we tailored a flexible support plan to meet her needs around personal care, collecting and providing help with medication, motivating her to improve her home environment, assisting with shopping and meal planning, and giving her the opportunity to enjoy new activities. She shared the journey she’s been on.

When you first came to see me, I was feeling very isolated and was struggling with many aspects of my daily living and care. This was mostly due to disabling flashbacks which make it difficult for me to manage even simple everyday tasks and to safely go to public places on my own. Sometimes, I would also resort to self-harm in response to my symptoms and because I couldn’t envisage a good future.

You took the time to get to know me, what I liked and didn’t like, and we discussed what would help me to make positive steps forward in my recovery. You put a plan in place to help with daily living and to reduce my isolation and take the time to work with my psychologist to ensure I am supported to attend therapy appointments and the team can all help to slowly improve my exposure and response to stimuli that triggers my PTSD.

I’m hopeful that I will be a stronger and more resilient person. I can see a future where I return to work and am living a positive and independent life, contributing to the lives of my family, friends and society. One day, I might even be able to help other people like my support team helps me. I can’t express how grateful I am to FitzRoy and the very dedicated workers who support me in a practical, non-judgemental way.

Enabling Alice to regain control over her life has been the biggest achievement so far, it was important to ensure she had choice. She could choose how we supported her and felt empowered by our team to help herself. As a result, she’s already made great strides in starting to overcome some of her anxieties and is making positive decisions to help stay safe and healthy. It is fantastic that Alice now feels she has the support in place to move forward and can see a bright future ahead.