Mike Nevin: Finding an accessible home after hospital discharge | #ForAccessibleHomes News

In Jan 2018,  Mike Nevin,  who is a wheelchair user had a major health incident and lost the use of his legs, lower body, and for a time, the use of his upper body. Mike's discharge from hospital was delayed. What should have been a day or two stay turned into a week as Mike’s early 1800s Victorian semi-detached property in Somerset was so unsuitable for him that the Occupational Therapist (OT) declared him ‘technically homeless’.

“ I was stressed and upset. A feeling of hopelessness overwhelmed me. I couldn’t see that I would ever be able to return home because of the circular argument the OT made. However, if I had stayed in hospital, I would have spiralled downhill. I only started to feel better, once home. The hospital was too busy, noisy and, at the time, full of flu cases.

To get me out of hospital and back into my original home while I searched for a new, more suitable home, a friend constructed a temporary ramp to get me home. The ramp was needed to enable the ambulance crew to return me home by wheeled trolley/stretcher and to enable me to use a wheelchair once supplied. It's not an over exaggeration to say that the ramp on the house in Somerset rescued me. Once I was home, the OT supplied a free ramp and the local church built me a concrete one.

The ramp was the only way for me to gain access to my home. Without it, the house would have been inaccessible to me after leaving hospital, and it was still not accessible enough to live in longer-term. The OT provided a profiling bed and ripple/pressure mattress, which is a hospital-style care bed with an adjustable mattress platform that bends into different shapes to support posture, comfort, and my needs. This was in what had been our front room. This room acted as a way through the house to the bedroom, meaning I had no privacy. All the doorways were narrow and angles tight. There were three level changes in the house. Unable to find a suitable home in the south west, in July 2021, we eventually had to leave Somerset, for a new-build house with level access and wide halls in the north east in Durham.

Our Durham home was already wheelchair visitable. I was able to get a Disabled Facilities Grant (at no cost to us) to have adaptations for a through-floor lift and wet room added. The local council also provided ceiling track hoists and again provided a profiling bed and ripple/pressure mattress.

With the assistance of my wife and care agencies I was able to stay in this home until March 2026. But due to declining health and an inability to find sufficient care support for my increasing needs my wife and I were forced to look at a change. In March 2026, I moved into Ann Charlton Lodge Nursing Home, a specialist neurological unit, as a permanent resident. ”