Jake’s Journey: Overcoming Anxiety to Reconnect with Education and Friends

Jake is 16-years old and has been with our service since 2016. He cares for his mum who has impaired mobility. His caring role includes cooking, cleaning, helping mum off the sofa, looking after pets, fetching and carrying things and emotional care.

Jake has not accessed school for the past 18 months due to a bullying incident with a friend. Due to his diagnosis of autism, Jake struggled with school and felt unable to return following the pandemic.

As a result of staying at home during the pandemic, Jake’s anxiety towards school grew and he became quite isolated. Jake wanted to return but due to his age he couldn’t.

Jake had applied to college and was accepted to do a course in IT and business as well as English and maths. Jake was very excited to be starting at college but still had anxiety around accessing the college and how he would get there on public transport. if he missed his stop. Jake’s own health had also suffered during the pandemic, and he found he struggled with a 10 minute walk. So, during the sessions, Jake also explored how he could increase his fitness.

Jake identified that he would like some support around reducing his anxiety, allowing him to get out of the house more often and meeting with his friends. He also wanted to gain confidence to travel to college via public transport and be in a college environment.

Last August and September we supported Jake with travel training from his home to college and back, recreating his journey. Jake became familiar with the journey, what buses he could take, where he could get off and what to do

As a result of the sessions, Jake was able to overcome his anxiety, increase his self-confidence and started attending college full-time. He rekindled friendships and made use of social circles at college which significantly reduced the isolation he had experienced whilst not attending school. Jake has also improved his physical stamina and has lost weight due to regular exercise and not being stuck inside the house.

“It’s really easy to get to College and I love being here. I really enjoy spending time with my friends again and like all my teachers, everyone is really friendly here. I’ve even made friends with a bus driver!

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