Cooking up confidence

Jay and his mum, Evangelina.

Over many years of receiving support from Northcott, Jay has grown in confidence, skills and independence. He’s also gained friends and a sense of belonging.

Today, Jay is all set for Life Skills at Northcott’s Gold Coast centre, where he’ll be making sausage rolls. Jay knows everyone in the group and is busy checking his phone to see if they are all coming.

Today’s session is about finding a sausage roll recipe and planning the shopping, cooking and clean-up. The group will go to Coles to buy their ingredients before working through the recipe to make and enjoy their creations.

Therapy support

“We started coming here when we moved from Sydney and after Jay had been diagnosed with Achondroplasia. We were referred to Northcott (known as Montrose in Queensland at the time) as Jay needed occupational therapy and speech therapy. He also did hydrotherapy with the physio,” Jay’s mum Evangelina explains.

“Jay really liked it and I’m a really loyal person so we just kept coming. Jay is comfortable here and the therapists are so good with him.”

“Coming to Northcott has helped in many, many ways. We’ve been coming so long that they really know us.”
– Evangelina, Jay’s mother

Jay and other Life Skills participants shop for ingredients needed for their cooking session.

Growing independence

Jay’s recent goals have been to build his independence and develop skills to do things by himself. He recently turned 18 and having some autonomy and choice are important to him. To assist him to be more self-sufficient, he’s completed travel training with his occupational therapist. This involved some practice runs on the train, discussing what to do if something unexpected happens and how to ask for help if he needs it.

Now Evangelina can confidently drop him at the train station, and Jay can make his way to places like the cinema or appointments.

“I do still worry a bit and I like to chat to him on the phone as he is travelling but it’s great to be able to drive him to the train station and see him make his own way to places,” says Evangelina.

“Yeah, I like that,” says Jay when we discuss the added independence that catching the train allows.

Communicating confidently

A key goal for Jay has been building his ability to interact with others using social and communication skills. Speech and occupational therapy sessions have focused on improving his language skills and boosting his confidence in talking to others.

Jay attended the first pilot of the Skills 4 Life program in Queensland. This was his first social program, and it significantly enhanced his ability to interact with others. He made valuable friendships, learned new skills and gained the confidence to access community facilities. This experience complemented the goals set by his therapy team, allowing him to apply them in real-life situations.

Jay is a huge NRL fan and loves chatting about the current ladder and the performance of his beloved Panthers. He’s also using his communication skills to express his opinions. In the Life Skills group tonight, that includes insisting his sausage roll will have some bacon too!