Cumas staff reaching out to 100 individuals with disabilities
In the midst of this current pandemic, Cumas New Ross, which supports over 100 individuals with disabilities in day and residential services, is continuing with that tremendous support service with a dedicated outreach response programme.
Cumas Day Service Co-ordinator Laura Doyle said: ‘When it became a possibility on March 12 that we may have to close our building in Butlersland, the facilitators contacted all individuals which they support to create a response plan for our outreach response programme.’
This outreach response programme started on March 18 as suddenly Cumas was now a service without walls. ‘ The outreach response plans were activated and all facilitators are supporting individuals in line with their choices laid out in their plans. Cumas and our facilitators are adapting daily to accommodate government restrictions and guidelines as they change. These weekly plans are for all individuals, supporting them to follow a daily routine and are continuously supporting the individuals with their home-based PCP (Person Centred Plan) and goals they have set out for themselves.’
Cumas is currently offering online resources such as morning mindfulness by Sharon Murphy, cooking and baking demonstrations by Kathy Delaney and Janette Rawson, dance tutorials by Roisin O’Sullivan, Cumas Trad Band tutorials by Ann Barnes and Liam Murray, and also tutorial videos by Colin Maher on how to work online. ‘All these videos are available on the Cumas Youtube channel or through the Cumas Facebook page. On top of all of this support, the facilitators are providing individual resource packs on a weekly or fortnightly basis to all individuals. These individualised packs include up-to-date information on what is happening around Covid-19 through social stories and easy to read guidelines. The resource packs also include information relevant to each individual such as recipes, art packs, HSE Health Passports, worksheets and links for exercise classes to name a few.’
The new way of supporting individuals allows for space to be more creative and think outside the box, Ms Doyle said.
‘ There is more one-to-one time with the individuals as there are no other distractions. Facilitators are in more of a supporter role than rescuer role as individuals are being supported from a distance and weekly tasks are set. Individuals feel the support is very good
‘As confidence is growing, families are seeing the growth in independence and individuals using their own initiative.’
Facilitators in Cumas are staying safe while providing support.
Ms Doyle, Day Service Coordinator, put a rota in place to access the building to ensure safe social distancing.
Facilitators can then use resources within the service to support individuals, be it resource packs, using technology etc. Laura also is providing one to one meeting with facilitators over Microsoft Teams and social distance meeting to support facilitators in the work they are carrying out. It is important to still have people connected through these uncertain times, Laura explained.
Cumas will continue with this service without walls for as long as necessary and to ensure each individual has the outlet and resources available to them so they can continue their daily life as normal as possible. ‘ The impact has been positive overall for Cumas New Ross and that is a credit to the support and dedication of all facilitators in Cumas and also from the response from the people we support. We are all apart but together apart.’