Pauline's Story

Living on your own without help and support from family is difficult for anyone. Even more so if you are living with a long term health condition such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS). 

The impact of these difficulties can affect people in different ways, in Pauline’s case, it had affected her ability to remain independent and her ability to effectively manage her own day to day nutrition and hydration. Fortunately, she was referred to the Nutrition and Dietetics partnership via her GP and our Nutrition Support Worker (NSW) got involved.

On the day our NSW met Pauline, it was her 64^th birthday - that was a great conversation starter between the two. Throughout the conversation, the NSW noticed that Pauline’s flat was unkempt and being neglected due to the impact of Pauline’s health condition. So much so that the property was littered with live wasps as well as dead ones scattered across the floors.

After talking through with Pauline, the NSW called Environmental Health, to help sort out the wasp infestation. This led to the timely extermination of the infestation to remove the health hazard for Pauline.

Even though the wasps were exterminated, the main support need for Pauline was to be able to bring the property to a tidier state to make it safer for her and to be able to keep on top of household tasks moving forward.

The NSW spoke to her about the idea of having a home cleaner - to help her with the bits of house work that she struggled with. Through this conversation Pauline realised that this was a much needed support for her and was encouraged to find herself one.

With her house health all in check, Pauline and her NSW both agreed for her to be referred to the MS Nurse to support and liaise with Consultant, which is an ongoing relationship.

Pauline, 64