We’re not great at “blowing our own trumpet” but perhaps we should. At Culmside we pride ourselves in providing a personalised service that aims to support the individual to enable them to lead their life how they want to and provide them with the skills to remain as independent as possible. Monitoring can sometimes feel like a box-ticking-exercise and staff will often say that the sense of fulfilment they get from seeing individuals thrive and supporting people that are happy and content is all they need to know that they are doing a great job. However monitoring is a necessary part of what we do and even if you know you are doing a good job it’s always nice to know that others think that too!!

Every year we carry out a number of monitoring activities split into 3 different groups; the individuals we support, their friends/families and a cross section of the professionals we work with. We ask a range of questions covering the support we give, the staff and Culmside as a provider.

Results this year continue to be positive with a wide range of comments being received, including the following:

“Culmside seems really positive, friendly and committed to giving a good service and the wellbeing of their service users” (Health Professional)

“It’s a nice place to live. I like the people who work here too” (Individual supported by Culmside)

“Animals, people, food, bedroom and living with [housemates]” (Individual supported by Culmside)

“Clients presented as well supported and staff and management had a good knowledge of those they supported” (Social Worker)

“Excellent as always – thank you!” (GP)

“No concerns, carer always polite and helpful, pleasure to work with” (Health Professional)

“Culmside is very, very good – with so much going on and growing…” (Relative)

“I think [my relative] is very happy with you” (Relative)

A huge thank you to everyone that took part in our monitoring and for all the amazing comments!!! For more informationplease have a look at our monitoring reports.

Professionals Feedback – Professionals Feedback – 2018

Individuals Supported by Culmside – Culmside monitoring April 2019

Relatives/Friends – Monitoring Report 2018

World Autism Awareness Week – 1-7 April 2019

Next week is World Autism Awareness Week so we thought we’d share some facts with you to raise awareness! Autism is a lifelong disability which affects how people communicate and interact with the world to find out more about what Autism is and how it affects people in their everyday lives visit the National Autistic Society https://www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is.aspx

Did you know?……..

Approximately 700 000 adults and children in the UK are autistic
1 in 100 people are autistic
Only 16% of autistic people are employed
Between 44% – 52% of autistic people have a learning disability which means between 48% – 56% of autistic people do not have a learning disability

National Autistic Society

To find out more about World Autism Awareness Week visit www.autism.org.uk

World Down Syndrome Day “Lots of Socks” – Thursday 21st March 2019

Tomorrow is World Syndrome Day (WDSD) “Lots of Socks” and we will be showing our support by wearing odd socks and maybe doing some sock related activities!!!

WDSD is a global awareness day to raise awareness of what Down Syndrome is and what it means to have Down Syndrome. This year’s campaign “Leave no one behind” wants to spread the message that people with Down syndrome must have the same freedoms and opportunities as everybody else!

There are lots of inspiring videos at www.worlddownsyndromeday2.org why not check them out?

Learning & Development has NO LIMITS!

Sadly all too often being given the label that you have a learning disability leads others to believe this means you have already reached your potential to learn new things and as such there are restrictions or barriers in place to prevent further learning and development. However this is often not the case only that the method of learning might need to be different or the materials used may need to be adapted. This is something we at Culmside have struggled with since taking on James who has a mild learning disability to work in the gardens and provide peer support to individuals attending our Day Services. At Culmside we are keen to give James every opportunity to develop and grow within his role but most of the training he has received has been either online with support from another member of staff or in-house with the rest of the team. However when Culmside decided to change how we do our First Aid training by bringing in an external trainer rather than sending staff on courses we felt this would be a perfect opportunity for James to join with the rest of the team to learn some practical skills in emergency first aid and gain some recognition for doing it as well. We found a trainer (First Aid Devon) that was happy to be flexible enough to allow James to take what he needed from the course without placing any restrictions on how long he needed to attend or which areas he needed to cover and as such he would a receive a certificate of attendance in First Aid awareness. The result, however blew us away, he proceeded to fully immerse himself in the practical’s including learning how to attach and use a defibrillator as well as making meaningful and positive contributions to the questions asked to the group. By the time he was ready to leave, the trainer (First Aid Devon) had already come to the decision that he had shown that he was well on his way to achieving more than an attendance certificate and as such without creating any additional pressure he altered his timetable in order that James could complete the syllabus to pass his Level 2 Award in Basic Life Support!!! No Barriers! No restrictions! No Limits! Well done James!

“LOVEly” Craft Session for Valentines!

We’ve been busy crafting this afternoon at Culmside! What better way to keep warm on a blustery afternoon than to make decoupage hearts to celebrate Valentines Day?

Romance is in the air!!

Making dreams come true at Culmside!

From the outside this just looks like a storage container… on the inside, it’s one mans dream come true.

We’ve been working hard with Bard Electrical on a truly fantastic project. One of our residents has always wanted to have his own cinema due to his passion for films.

Fully designed & installed to his specification he now has his own fully working cinema including a foyer with popcorn & drinks machine!

We hope we get an invite for a viewing!

Crafts at Culmside

At Culmside Support we pride ourselves in putting the individual at the centre of what we do. If you don’t want to make a rabbit hutch or bird box that’s fine, if you want to make a tank out of wood instead then why not?