What Is This All About?

A little more introduction is perhaps necessary. Five years ago I finished university with a degree in learning disability nursing. I had chosen this little known branch of nursing having previously worked as a nursing assistant in an assessment and treatment unit, working with people with learning disabilities and severe challenging behaviour. Hardly a day went by that I did not finish with at least one bruise, one bite or a handful of hair missing from my head. By the time I needed stitches in my arm following one lady’s attempt to eat me, I knew that this was exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I just didn’t quite know why.

Three years studying, and a few years doing various different jobs both in England and overseas, brings me to this point in my life and career. I’m a deputy ward manager, which is less glamourous and harder work than I had anticipated. The ward that I manage is a ten-bedded unit for boys between the ages of 12 and 18. ‘My boys’, as I generally refer to them. There are various reasons why my boys are on my ward. From the lad who can’t stop hitting himself around the head, to the one who tries to touch up girls on a regular basis, they all have one thing in common; they need a lot, and I mean a lot, of looking after. 

My boys all have some degree of learning disabilities, although for some this means that their reading level is a few years behind what it should be, and for other it means that they are unable to speak, to understand what is being spoken to them, to feed themselves, to take themselves to the toilet. These boys, functioning at a level not much higher than a new-born baby, are the ones I most love to work with. It’s the challenge of teaching a young man how to appropriately respond to his feelings of anger or sadness, rather than lashing out at himself or others, when he hasn’t even learnt how to put his own clothes on, that I find fascinating. Frustrating, most of the time as well, but the satisfaction when he makes a small step in the right direction is worth all the weeks or even months of work. 

So I’m writing this blog to introduce you to this world, which is alien and more than a little intimidating to a lot of people. I’ll tell you more about my boys, the difficulties they have and the way we overcome them. I might even tell you how we fail to overcome them. Sometimes my boys will make you laugh. Sometimes they’ll make you cry. Sometimes you’ll want to cheer them on, sometimes lock them up and throw away the key. But if they have any impact on you at all, then you’ll be a fraction closer to understanding why I do the job that I do.