Mr Anim has been qualified as a nurse for nine years however, before qualifying he was a decorator which resulted in a life-changing shock injury. Although this injury was transformative and changed his career, he described it as the best decision he ever made.
Adrian currently works as a Care Co-Ordinator in the Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne, and Wear NHS Trust’s Learning Disability team, and has won the Social Care Nurse of the Year award twice in a row at the Northeast Great British Care Awards and was nominated for by the families he has previously worked with.
Adrian expressed how he had been working with one particular family for the past several months saying “They are a family who had a learning-disabled child with a range of physical disabilities. "They had been on their own for about 20 years they had always found they were always battling against things to improve their son's quality of life. Initially, it was about doing some behavioural assessment. It was really about understanding what this person was trying to communicate."
The mum he had helped said: "I have never met anyone who shows compassion like this gentleman does. Adrian was truly amazing with my son, who normally asks people to go home and doesn’t like them in our house, but Adrian nearly had me in tears over how understanding and caring he was with him.
"To see my son so happy around him was a day I will remember for a very long time."
Adrian expressed that his aim was always to ensure that plans were always put in place for families that involved care and making them feel "empowered". He said that this kind of work often led to "lightbulb moments" where families were better able to understand what their loved one might have been struggling with.
Mr Anim explained that after his injury he began decorating homes for individuals with learning disabilities and found it “refreshing.” He said, "I felt so happy being around these lovely people."
Following that, he decided to move back to Newcastle and got a career as a Support Worker for individuals who had disabilities and became extremely passionate about it. He then decided to go to college and got his NVQ qualifications and went to university.
Adrian is currently a dominant voice in encouraging the rights of people with learning disabilities. He expressed how important it is to support those who do have learning disabilities, he said "It's so important if I'm coming into contact with someone in my job whether they've been dealing with the NHS or social care, it's because there's a need that's not being met.
"There's still work to be done but yes, I would say that in the nine years, I've been qualified but before that in my experience training and working before that, there have been significant improvements."
