ORIGIN is a private company, owned and managed by the two founding directors since 2001, Peter Henry and Linda Adamsen.
Like our clients, we live and breathe spinal cord injury because Peter himself has a complete C5/6 spinal cord injury and is also a client while managing director, Linda, has extensive PA/care management experience and industry knowledge.
ORIGIN’s founding vision, to be the best rather than the biggest, provider of live-in care services for people with a spinal cord injury, remains at the very heart of the company. Providing a unique and wide range of specialist spinal injury care services Origin delivers focused and bespoke-to-you, live-in care services to meet individual needs and aspirations for independent living; as well as the best work experience for our office and care teams.
ORIGIN recently achieved the rating of ‘good’ from the Care Quality Commission (CQC); the latest report can be viewed HERE.
Benefits of using Origin for specialist live-in spinal injury care
Life after a spinal cord injury is changed forever and for those who do not intend to let their spinal injury dictate a lifestyle without choices, be dependent on family members or have to put up with inappropriate care, ORIGIN can provide these specialist one-to-one, 24 hour, live-in care services.
- Continuity and peace of mind that your (or your client’s) long-term care requirements are being handled by specialists on your behalf
- Dedicated and experienced care managers as main point of contact, backed up by the wider care management team
- Quality Assurance is in place to monitor progress and ensure the package is delivering what you want it to
- Person-centred care planning, reviewing and evaluation of care needs
- Flexible short-term respite and/or long-term permanent live-in service
- Choice of respite and permanent care and who provides the help
- PAs who are willing and able to accompany clients away from home on business or on holiday
- PAs can drive client’s vehicles to help clients get out and about
- 24 hour emergency support hotline and on-call emergency care provision
- Rigorous and robust recruitment of PAs, fully referenced and checked with the Disclosure and Barring Service
Having a PA is all about choice…choice to live an independent lifestyle in your own home, choice to do what you want and the opportunity to take control of your own life.
“That’s why it is important to have the ‘right PA’, to arrange time to be on your own and to ask for things to be done in a particular manner. Origin helps me to achieve these things.”
ORIGIN’s range of services:
- Fully managed care (FMC) – is a continuous long-term package with no hassle. You have the overall control of the care package but we handle all the bureaucracy.
- Respite care – is a popular option for shorter placements of a few days or weeks, e.g. if a family carer needs a break, you want to go on holiday etc.
- Introduction of a PA – if you wish to employ a chosen ORIGIN PA yourself, this can easily be arranged.
Because a spinal injury is a complex injury that requires specialist care ORIGIN, unlike many other agencies, focuses on providing live-in care services exclusively for spinally injured clients. Our services concentrate on understanding and meeting the individual, practical and social needs of those who wish to live independent lives in their own homes. There are some very specific reasons why people with a spinal injury need specialist care provided by spinal-trained PAs:
- Autonomic Dysreflexia – a potentially very serious complication, the main ‘trigger’ seeming to be bladder/bowel issues.
- Bowel care – use of a ‘spinal’ specialist live-in PA enables much more flexibility in these matters, fitting in with personal wishes and requirements.
- Moving/handling – condition-specific techniques allowing for different injury levels with their unpredictable impacts of strength, balance, spasm etc.
- Skin problems – as immobile SCI clients are at increased risk from skin problems, specialist skin care training is important to prevent skin damage and resultant problems.
- Psychology – understanding of the psychological effects of those with SCI often as a result of a traumatic accident.
All ORIGIN’s staff are trained in and familiar with the specialisms needed for their work and between our team, we can address all areas where non-specialists would undoubtedly struggle. The PA training course program is available to clients on request.
All ORIGIN PAs are:
- Fully trained in spinal injury care before they start work.
- Carefully selected and personally interviewed.
- Reference checked.
- Able to drive
- Matched to individual client preferences and lifestyles.
- Enhanced DBS checked.
When our son started using Origin PAs we all felt we had our lives back. Origin PAs are reliable, calm and have common sense.
“They also have a great sense of humour and are often young and quite laid back which from our son’s point of view was important. As parents we felt very safe with the PAs from Origin.”
While Origin is based in the north of England, we are available to meet clients and others requiring information throughout the UK. Our client service manager is available for visits if requested.
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