Cheshire Homes Society

In 1984 the Society identified a need to develop appropriate rehabilitation homes for adults with a brain injury. In response to this need, King Edward House was opened in Vancouver to provide transitional rehabilitation for this client group. King Edward House accommodates residents recently discharged from hospital requiring support as they transition into the community and others experiencing difficulties re-establishing themselves in the community. The home is serviced by an elevator and is fully wheelchair accessible. It has six bedrooms, one living room, a recreation room, accessible garden, two bathrooms and one private ensuite bathroom and two kitchens. Each resident enjoys his or her own private bedroom with a comfortable bed, night table, dresser, closet, pillow, bedding and cable television outlet.

Upon intake to King Edward House, the resident client is required to sign a pre-admission contract and code of conduct. Once admitted, the first six to eight weeks are primarily focused on assessment and orientation to the facility and the immediate community. Cheshire’s Functional Skills Assessment tool is unique to Cheshire. This tool has been continually revised and updated over the past decade and evaluates a resident’s functional, physical and cognitive status as well as safety issues in and outside the home through a series of functional tests.

During the assessment period, an individualized service plan is developed for the client, with treatment team input and involvement. The service plan focuses on psychosocial and functional skills rehabilitation, as well as transition management, to address the quality-of-life challenges that accompany an acquired brain injury. These include:

• Activities of daily living (ADL) management, including all aspects
of personal and home management.

• Personal organization development through training of habituated
routines and the use of tools for independent self-management. Techniques
and tools include day planners, alarm watches, checklists and other external
cuing options that can be replicated in any setting.

• Time management and leisure planning that can, if possible, lead
to meaningful vocational opportunities.

• Medical, physical and fitness management and habituation to ensure
a complete, holistic recovery and beneficial future health habits.

• Memory development and improvement through cognitive exercises,
orientation exercises, problem solving and exercises specifically designed
to address an individual’s cognitive impairments after brain injury.

• Emotional control and work on maintaining or developing interpersonal
relationships through the re-learning of effective communication and social
skills, that are often lost with frontal lobe syndrome.

Typically, reporting on client progress occurs on a quarterly basis. When the client has successfully progressed through this phase of rehabilitation, is stable and as independent as possible, long-term living arrangements are facilitated. The client is provided with discharge goals, re-orientation training and a transition plan if required.

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