"Our son moving to adult services and leaving his special needs school."

Our son was fast approaching the end of his time at a special needs school.  As his mum, the thought of it filled me with complete dread. I had so many fears and questions and if I’m honest I felt totally overwhelmed.   Our son is a very capable young man, that enjoys his independence, and it was really sad to think of him loosing that.

I had a telephone call from Shona the Day opportunities co-ordinator arranging a meeting at our home to discuss the next steps.

The day of the meeting arrived and I had the privilege to welcome Shona, Anne-Marie (The Day Opportunities team leader) and Cecilia (Adult Disability Social Worker), into our home.  These ladies sat with me and explained their role in facilitating the transition.  I explained to them a little about our son’s personality, his likes and dislikes, and what our hopes for his future was.  

They took their time and explained every option available to him, as this meeting went on I could feel our son really mattered to them.  You could just tell these loved what they did. They were so positive about the next stage for him.  The information these ladies were able to give me was amazing. They told us about a preforming arts class that our son absolutely loved the sound of and is very much looking forward to starting.  They showed us what our son’s week could look like if we went on their recommendations.

I could honestly feel the heavy weight of worry lift off me.  All the fear we had of him leaving school seemed to change that very day.

From that day on I knew these three ladies would do everything they could to ensure our son’s transition run smooth.  They have been a such a tremendous source of support to us.  They accompanied us to meetings, help us fill out forms and was continuously on hand for advice when required.

Now our son is into his last few days of school and he is so excited for the next chapter, as are we.

Without the help and guidance from these three ladies life could have been so different for him.

They are true credits of their professions and we feel so very lucky to have them on our side.