AS the UK enters its second week of lockdown and adapts to the unprecedented restrictions, those with autism can struggle with these chaotic times.

Routine, familiarity and predictability are often pivotal to their wellbeing – and carers like Mandy Roberts, a residential support worker from Johnstown Wrexham, who works in Flintshire, are going the extra mile to keep children and young people with autism happy, active and engaged.

Before the recent lockdown measures were put in place, the team started to look at under-utilised areas on the site where Mandy works at Options Kinsale in Holywell, Flintshire, a specialist residential home for children aged 8-19 with autism and complex needs, part of national provider Outcomes First Group.

The idea was to develop these into additional activity areas for the young people to use to help manage their anxieties and enrich the experiences they could enjoy on-site.

Mandy realised that many of the young people she and her colleagues care for at Options Kinsale would struggle with the change in routine during the virus pandemic due to visitor restrictions and not having access to the usual off-site outings.

In her own time - whilst juggling commitments with her own two children - she devised new daily programmes, searching through social media and web sites to source activities that would engage the young people at the residential home, meet their individual needs and most importantly, help distract them from the outside world.

Mandy launched an appeal for donations to the local community, and was ‘inundated’ with offers from locals keen to help – she received piles of books, 150 DVDs, two sofas, board games, jigsaws, and even batman toys.

This enabled the team to set up the on-site Bistro as an additional resource area for all these exciting activities to take place.

She said: “There has been an amazing amount of donations to our service to help keep the young people busy – we are hugely grateful to everybody in the local community.

“Thanks to their generosity we can continue to provide the young people we support with new and creative ways to meet their individual needs and achieve the best possible outcomes in these challenging times.”

Mandy is one of a team of residential support workers dedicated to supporting young people with autism at Options Kinsale, working 16-hour shifts to help develop their life skills, promote independence, maintain positive relationships with families and provide them with new life experiences.