One of our Recovery Coaches (RC) has been working with a young male NDIS Participant for just over a month now in quite a unique way.
This participant has always been resistant to engage in any support, due to many reasons including lack of trust and high levels of anxiety. Our RC was told by the Participant’s mother, who is also his primary caregiver, that when support workers have come to his home in the past, he would retreat to his room and not engage. The Participant did not show up to his initial meeting with his RC, so instead our Coach used that time to get to know his mother, and discussed strategies that he could use to gradually engage with the Participant. The action plan for our RC was to begin small, using graded exposure by method of telephone call once a week for just 5-10 minutes at a time. The purpose of this was to build the Participant’s tolerance to engage, develop rapport, and slowly build trust. The RC would immediately follow up afterwards through sending an email, which has assisted in developing a good working relationship. The Recovery Coach and Participant did this for the first 4 weeks.
On the 5th week, the RC planned with the participant to drive past his house and let him know when he was outside so they could share a wave and a smile after their phone call.
After that phone call on the 5th week, the Participant asked his RC to take him to do a bush walk for their next visit. This was a major breakthrough for the participant which has shown resilience, initiative, and confidence.
