Caring for those with physical and learning difficulties

"In my experience people with either physical disabilities or learning difficulties are a testament to the bravery and resilience of humankind" says the Manager of Headingley Court.

I have no issue sharing that our fully trained and exceptionally experienced, highly professional staff can find themselves in tears in a situation such as a young man who happened to be in a car accident taking his very first step for 11 months.

These are the moments that define why we nurses and carers choose to train and use our skills to help those who need us. At Headlingley Court we are a team – the staff and those we care for. We consider in detail the individual care plan for each of our short or long term residents with goals and all kinds of opportunities for their personal choice and, very importantly, opportunities for them to feel in control.

Of course it is can be very hard for our residents to meet challenges such as others might simply take for granted. And so we focus very much on social aspects of the healing process such as connecting our residents with others of similar disabilities in the wider community.

Our gardens are places of calm and we even have a Snoozlem room for complete relaxation and kitchenettes for residents to use to make a cup of tea or snack for themselves.