Millie's story: finding happiness, confidence and belonging with Rose Road
This International Day of Happiness, we’re sharing Millie’s story and how Rose Road has helped her go from feeling trapped by routine to embracing new adventures, building confidence and being so much happier in life.
Millie, 22, has complex learning disabilities, is non-verbal, has epilepsy, mobility issues, feeding issues and is partially sighted.
Communication has always been a major challenge for her. Being unable to tell people what she wanted or needed causes her a lot of frustration and can lead to challenging behaviour in her need to be understood.
Her mum Nicky explains: "It’s fair to say that she disliked school. In the last few years she would fight every day when getting dressed and would often refuse to get out of the car. The strict routines made things difficult and it was hard to see her struggle.
Millie started overnight respite at Rose Road when she was 10, and we knew that Millie enjoyed Rose Road as soon as she started. She’d willingly get ready in the morning without fighting and smiled and clapped when her carers arrived.
Things really changed when she started outreach when she left school. With 2:1 support to keep her safe, she has great fun with them exploring the world around her. As a family it is so pleasing and reassuring to see Millie so contented and settled in a routine that’s designed for her. She comes home happy and tired!"
"We can’t thank Rose Road enough for providing such a brilliant service that helps Millie get the most out of life”.
Her Support Worker Sarah explains how they have worked with Millie to help her overcome her barriers:
“I've supported Millie since early 2024 and the change I’ve seen in her is incredible.
By taking the time to get to know her as an individual, we’ve learnt how to read her communication cues - she uses her hands to indicate what she wants - and we understand each other. It has reduced her frustration, which has made everything better for her.
She also knows I’ll never make her do what she doesn’t want to do. We sit and do everything in Millie’s time. This helps mum too, she can go off and have breakfast and have time to herself.
At Rose Road, Millie can be in control of her routine and has a choice over how she spends her time with us. We have the flexibility to be led by her.
This is all helping her to be more comfortable and confident trying out different things; outings used to involve driving around in the car as it was the only place she was settled. Now, she is out of her wheelchair a lot more exploring new places.
At a park recently she went down a slide for the first time. She loves going to splash parks and running around arcades. Recently, after careful risk assessment, we even took her out on a kayak. Mum never expected she could do things like that, but she loved splashing the water.
She’s also becoming more comfortable around others. She loves swimming and music therapy, and we’re starting to spend time with other young people in groups as Millie is becoming more tolerant and integrated into social settings - it’s all mum wants for her, to be happy and included.
I love my job. It’s a privilege to build a bond with Millie and it's really rewarding to support her family too, to see what a difference it’s made for them to see her happy.
Milllie is so much happier. We're breaking down her barriers and doing more than ever before, communicating more and spending time with other people. It’s clear she feels more confident and in control.
Help create more opportunities for young people like Millie to achieve new things and feel happy by making a donation to Rose Road.
A donation from you can help fund activities, therapies and new experiences that enable disabled children and young people like Millie to feel joy, belong and thrive. Thank you.