Joyce’s Night Out
The learning log tool is most useful when people are doing something new, or being supported by new staff. Let’s take a look at Joyce’s night out as an example.
Joyce is 65 years old. In her youth, she was a dancer and enjoyed socializing with her friends.
She wants to find somewhere to go and enjoy herself, but finds the local seniors’ center to be “full of old people”.
Joyce’s support worker Ania arranged a night out for Joyce and her friend Kay at a ‘swing dance’ night for people over 50 in a local bar.
They all caught the 52 bus into town at 6.30pm, and went out for dinner at Joyce’s favorite Italian restaurant “Bruno’s”. Joyce had pasta and a glass of red wine. From there they went on to the Ritz bar where the dance night was held.
The night started at 7.30pm, but Joyce didn’t arrive until after 8pm because it was too far to walk from Bruno’s and it took a long time to find a taxi. This caused Joyce to become stressed and anxious.
Joyce didn’t need much encouragement to try the lessons and had a dance with a couple of people throughout the evening. Although she couldn’t move like she used to, she still looked great on the dance floor.
She bought a cocktail at the bar, which cost more than she thought it would and meant that she didn’t have quite enough money left for the taxi home and had to borrow some from Kay, which upset Joyce as it was ‘her treat’.
Joyce had a great night out and really enjoyed chatting with everyone, but thought that leaving at 9.30 was too early as things had only just got going in her opinion.
One of the other people she lives with complained that she woke her up when she came in late.
Joyce doesn’t normally drink much alcohol and the next day Joyce felt very tired and a little bit hungover – but she said it was worth it, she’d had a great night out.
