Cecily’s story is a wonderful example of how powerfully person-centered support can help people to flourish.
Cecily has been a resident at Briarwood, one of our 24-hour nursing services for older adults, since early 2021. During this time, our team have noticed an amazing transformation in her wellbeing and connection with other people.
Before Cecily moved into Briarwood, she’d been a resident of a different care home for five years. She had very negative beliefs about herself and the impact that she had on other people, so she had isolated herself more and more until she rarely left her bedroom.
In the previous nursing home, Cecily needed assistance staff to stay nearby through the night, so she felt reassured that no harm would come to her. Cecily had one-to-one supervision around the clock, and she was taking a variety of medications to help to manage her mood.
Moving to Briarwood
When Cecily moved into Briarwood, our team wanted to focus on getting to know her and understand how her beliefs about herself were impacting her behaviour.
When Cecily first came to Briarwood, she didn’t leave her room and kept away from our other residents. But over time, as our team got to know her more deeply, Cecily flourished and her wellbeing improved dramatically. David, Briarwood’s service manager, believes a huge factor in this was our team’s discovery that Cecily is a keen artist!
Uncovering Cecily’s artistic talent has been groundbreaking, as Cecily is now able to express herself through her artwork and takes a lot of joy from being creative!
Cecily has been kind enough to create some artwork for this article, around the themes of nature and our organisational values.
Cecily loves to create colourful pieces and bold signs for around Briarwood, as well as for our head office. By creating artwork to decorate our buildings, Cecily is able to share her talent, passion, and creativity, using her art to bring joy to others.
Cecily has created so much beautiful artwork that David thinks Briarwood may soon run out of wall space to display it all!
From darkness to colour
Our team have also noticed that Cecily’s artwork has undergone a noticeable change. Cecily used to use mostly dark colours in her work, but now they mostly include bright and eye-catching colours.
David believes that, ‘This is a small change, but a great outcome in the bigger picture of Cecily’s recovery’.
Connecting with others
Cecily now also enjoys socialising with other residents and the team at Briarwood in social spaces outside of her room. She even bakes delicious homemade treats for her fellow residents!
Cecily also cares a great deal about looking after our planet. In fact, Cecily has taken the initiative to establish a ‘green group’ at Briarwood, which has already improved Briarwood’s environmental impact by setting up a fantastic recycling system.
The team at Briarwood have been supporting Cecily’s environmental work, but David explains that ‘the spark came from her’.
“Cecily’s wellbeing has improved so much that she is no longer prescribed her previous medication, she doesn’t need constant one-to-one supervision, and she now plays a key role in life at Briarwood.”
We’d like to thank Cecily for being such a caring person who brings happiness to others, and for her amazing work!