The customer was referred to the Motiv8 service in December 2020. He had been unemployed for 5 months after losing his job following a change to his shift pattern which triggered a significant issue related to his learning disability causing high levels of anxiety.  

Before working with Motiv8 the customer had started to become agoraphobic and was heavily reliant on his brother who he lived with. His anxiety had become so acute he was unable to speak at his first appointment and his brother communicated on his behalf. 

The Motiv8 Key worker completed the detailed assessments as part of the programme and identified multiple needs in relation to confidence and communication and a plan to improve his self-esteem in addition to developing coping strategies to manage his anxiety and physical health issues to progress back into employment. All the while ensuring he received high-quality support and advice in relation to his learning disability. 

The first step was to build rapport and gain his trust. A unique action plan was designed in conjunction with the customer, putting him at the heart of the interventions that were identified to support him in making progress. Various activities were explored from volunteering to art therapy and counselling and the customer was in weekly contact with a key worker who encouraged him every step of the way to build his confidence and integrate back into the community. The customer always wanted to return to work but it was clear at those initial stages the incident with his previous employer has caused intense confusion and completely knocked his confidence. 

His key worker developed a unique programme which was paced to his needs and addressed his issues around self-esteem and self-confidence while linking into essential services to address his anxiety. The customer embraced every aspect of the programme, taking part in art therapy sessions, working with his counsellor, and engaging in daily outdoor activities. The Motiv8 key worker was keen to ensure that the step-up, step-down model was followed closely to build his inner resilience while being mindful not to create further dependency.  

After 6 months of addressing self-confidence, self-development and personal health and well-being in a supportive environment he was encouraged to take steps to return to work.  

The specialised Motiv8 Employment Support Team took the lead at this stage with bespoke interventions that prepared him for a return to work, designing a new CV, streamlining his job searches and supporting him in completing applications and finally creating mock interview scenarios in order for the customer to test his newfound skills in a safe environment to maintain his confidence building to manage expectations and develop resilience.  

Over the course of 5 months, he attended multiple interviews until he was finally successful at securing employment as a part-time cleaner at a local college, where he has worked for over a year. The customer was delighted to be back at work, he has made friends and developed quality working relationships at his new workplace. He messaged his Motiv8 key worker recently to say he had attended his first Christmas party how much he had enjoyed himself and what it meant to him to be part of a team.