"A member of staff going above and beyond expectations"

My daughter has been seeing Sophie from the ADHD service at Kimberworth Place for the last 8 weeks. During that time Sophie has been attempting to give my daughter emotional regulation therapy. Unfortunately my daughter is extremely dysregulated and has has violent unsafe meltdowns and not been compliant in the therapy.

Sophie could have given up as the course was only supposed to be 3 hours over 3 weeks, however, she quickly realised that would not work and she cut the sessions to 30 minutes over a 6 week period.

Still my daughter was not able to engage due to dysregulation and not understanding the materials. Sophie went away and adapted the materials to a very basic way which my daughter would be able to understand.

During these weeks Sophie noticed the struggle we were having, the constant rejections from other health services for my daughter. We are exhausted, my daughter is getting worse and not able to complete the therapy. Sophie spoke to her manager and other professionals, she was getting advice and referring my daughter wherever she thought could possibly help us. Unfortunately we got rejected from a few more services during this time.

Meanwhile Sophie witnessed my daughter's violence and dysregulation and even witnessed her run and escape her wheelchair into the car park. Sophie really wanted to help us as a family, she could see how bad we are struggling and I have to say she is the first person to go out of her way to try and help us, she went above and beyond her role as a support worker, she gave empathy and reassurance even when we were at rock bottom, she made calls to check in on how we were doing.

I genuinely cannot thank her enough for attempting to help our family.

Sophie is having an MDT and a DSR meeting regarding my daughter and despite what the outcome may be, I can honestly say she has tried her very best to help us as a family.

This level of support and determination needs to be recognised officially because she is one in a million. Sophie has done more to try and help us in the space of a few weeks than our social worker has done in a year!

We as a family will miss seeing Sophie and wish the sessions could continue but unfortunately due to funding this can't happen.

I forgot to mention above that for 3 of the sessions my daughter wouldn't even get out the car. Sophie came to the car and tried to speak to her and attempted to de- escalate the situation but unfortunately it didn't work. Sophie then suggested we try a session at home in my daughter's 'safe' environment, this happened yesterday and my daughter completed all of the tasks with support and encouragement from Sophie. Unfortunately this was at the end of her sessions and there are no more due to funding. My daughter has build a good relationship with Sophie and I feel that feeling safe and having this relationship has enabled her to start to open up but it's just a shame it can't continue, we could have seen a real change in her over time.

Anyway I will finish off by saying that Sophie is a credit to the service and we wish her the best of luck in the future, she needs this recognition as I genuinely don't think she realises how amazing at her job she is and what a difference she has made to my daughter and us as parents.