Can you imagine what it would be like if all the major decisions in your life were made by someone else? Where you should live and with whom, when you should eat and what, when you should go out and where? Most of us would be appalled to have so little control over our lives. Yet this has been the accepted norm for thousands of people who have to depend on others for their care.
But things are beginning to change. A government initiative has been put in motion to ensure that adults with learning disabilities have a person-centred plan, and that their needs and preferences are heard and acted upon.
This is of course a great idea that could transform many lives. Putting it into practice can be challenging, however, when the person concerned has communication difficulties and other complex needs.
The Adult Learning Disability Service commissioned darts to work with their hardest-to-reach clients, alongside key staff, to explore creative ways of enabling people to express their wishes.
We have worked over the past year with people at Prosper and Solar Centres at St. Catherine's, Cedar and Thorne Social Education Centres, and at at Hayfield Social Education Centre. We have also led awareness-raising sessions with care staff and person-centred planning facilitators.
It has been extremely challenging but exceptionally rewarding work for our team of artists. We have had to devise activities which are very accessible and appropriate to particular clients and which integrate the concepts of choice and control.
This can be as simple as waiting for Jonathan to tap on the table to signal the beginning of a new verse of our song, or asking Christine to choose which food a character will eat for supper in our story.
It can be noticing that Marcia likes playing with dangly objects and bringing in more for her to experience, or taking time to find out what sounds make Frank excited and what calms him down.
It may mean sitting with Josie and joining in with her humming and rocking movements, or having an extended musical conversation with David, the two of us taking it in turns to play a xylophone.
We have made huge sensory pictures with flowers, glue, paint and photographs, made up songs about our dreams and put movements to them, and incorporated what we have learned about everybody into stories.
Does Anne like her face being stroked with a feather? Does she react differently if she feels some fur? Which music does Peter prefer? What is George�s favourite colour?
This is of course a long way from the big decisions such as where Lucy will live when her parents can no longer care for her, but we found that working in this way can mean that staff learn much more about the people in their care and that the person slowly begins to take more control.
Working closely with key staff is vital to ensure that discoveries about individuals are acted upon and that the approaches are continued once we have moved on.
We welcomed the opportunity to be part of this potentially ground-breaking work.
Names in this article have been changed.