Our Life Skills Facilitators are central to life at our services
At Inspire Neurocare, it’s our mission to provide truly joined-up care, where our staff team collaboratively take responsibility for our people’s wellbeing.
Through the work of the Life Skills Facilitators and the flexible approach of therapists, rehabilitation is not confined to the gym or to a specific time of day. Instead, rehabilitation and a focus on developing independence run through every interaction, every day.
Inspire Neurocare's Life Skills Facilitators (LSFs) are revolutionising the neurorehabilitation sector with an innovative approach that leads to outstanding patient outcomes. LSFs have a comprehensive role – one that reimagines the traditional carer into an enabling supporter - combining care, therapeutic and clinical input and companionship, in one.
LSFs support neurorehabilitation in three key ways:
As well as providing holistic care, Life Skills Facilitators promote people’s independence, facilitating each person to participate in daily tasks as much as they are able to. This may include getting showered in the morning, choosing what clothes to wear or making a drink or meal.
Simon lives with very complex needs following a brain injury and cannot communicate verbally. Instead, he relies on facial expressions, so the LSFs learned to interpret his needs by close observation. For personal care, Simon needs encouragement and help to put toothpaste onto his toothbrush and then further help to position his hand to hold the brush to his mouth.
Never taking over, Life Skills Facilitators stop there: they know that Simon prefers to brush his own teeth with an electric toothbrush. By building good relationships and learning to understand Simon's body language, LSFs can understand his choices, which everyone respects.
LSFs use each everyday opportunity to bring rehabilitation to life – whether that is through personal care tasks such as getting dressed or during social activities. Rehabilitation interventions are no longer confined to the gym or a particular therapy session. Instead, rehabilitation happens across all environments and at all times of the day.
LSFs enable people to live as independently as possible whilst ensuring their therapeutic goals and desired outcomes are always prioritised. LSFs provide companionship, personal care, medication administration, and support with dressing, cooking and engaging in social activities differently for every individual, enabling people wherever possible instead of doing things for them.
As part of their role, Life Skills Facilitators:
Life Skills Facilitators support people to continue or develop new hobbies or social activities as much as possible. This may include planning trips or maintaining contact with family members via email or Skype. All activities focus on promoting people’s independence and achieving goals identified in collaboration with individuals, family members and the therapy team.
LSFs are trained by and work alongside nurses, therapists, and wellbeing colleagues. As a result, people benefit from a wide range of experience and expertise during each rehabilitation intervention. Through a combination of formal foundation training and experiential training, LSFs get to know each resident as an individual and their personal preferences for care. This means the team can tailor rehabilitation to their exact needs to achieve the most appropriate outcomes for them. With the support of the nurses, LSFs administer medications and build their individual knowledge of clinical tasks.
Life Skills Facilitators also carry out therapeutic activities under the guidance of therapists, such as exercise and mobility programmes or the use of communication aids and interactive equipment. These therapeutic activities also include sensory activities, orientation and memory tasks and engaging in social events. By attending rehabilitation therapy sessions alongside individuals and therapists, LSFs gain an in-depth understanding of a person's abilities, needs, and ultimate goals. The Therapy team trains LSFs to safely and confidently bring therapeutic interventions to every interaction they go on to have with people. LSFs learn how best to support each person's unique needs, from splinting and transferring from bed to chair and seating positions to personal care, eating and drinking, and communication. In addition, electronic patient records allow every team member to record changes to people's decisions, care, and support, so these needs and choices are reflected in real-time.
Make a referral or arrange a visit to Inspire Neurocare
At Inspire Neurocare, we work very closely with the individual, family members, the referring team and any current care providers to ensure a positive transition to our service. Please contact us to arrange a virtual tour or to discuss a referral or admission: