Stride initially started independence coaching sessions with Callum in December 2022 with our Independence Coach Michelle. At this point, Callum felt he had been let down by the education system and had struggled with a lengthy lockdown. Callum found his days were spent playing online games with little to no social interaction. This had negatively impacted Callum’s well-being and mental health, disrupting his routine, sleep, friendships, and confidence.
Callum received regular independence coaching sessions (Michelle) with an initial focus on building confidence and routine, as well as learning effective sleep hygiene. Callum then went on to engage well with job coaching support from Stride, landing a job at The Hub initially as a Kitchen Porter. Callum has also overcome many barriers socially, gaining enough confidence to plan a holiday abroad with his friends, when at one time Callum didn’t feel confident enough to catch the bus.
With his new independence coach (Jules), Callum is maintaining his job at The Hub and spending more time working front of house. Callum is also exploring driving lessons and continuing to make great strides towards his independence.
Mum’s Review:
We had tried to get Callum help with his anxiety, heightened sensory difficulties, and horrendous sleep from various sources for over a year before lockdown, constantly getting passed from pillar to post. No one took ownership. Lockdown came along and brought with it a whole host of additional challenges and failures by various elements of the system. Callum went into complete shutdown; he lost his trust in adults and couldn’t engage with anyone other than his immediate friend circle online. We barely left the house for over two years.
All Callum needed was for someone to understand it wasn’t behavioural. It wasn’t that he wouldn’t; it was that he couldn’t.
Step in Stride. Contacting Logan was the best thing I ever did. From the initial chat, I was confident he understood Callum’s needs. It took a lot of patience and perseverance from Stride to give Callum the space and time he needed to rebuild his trust in adults and feel reassured they weren’t going to slam doors in his face. They were able to help Callum break down his defences, giving him the confidence and self-belief to make those tentative steps forward and back out into the world as an adult.
With the support of the team at Stride, Callum is making huge leaps forward. He has made amazing progress, both personally and with his support at work, and is finally starting to believe in himself and see the awesome young man I have always known he is.
