Case Studies
Andrea’s Story (by her sister Rose)
Andrea had lived in a hospital setting since the late 1970’s when she was a in her early twenties. She’d still had some contact with us during that time, particularly me her older sister and our Aunty Mary, as both mum and dad had died some years before.
When Andrea was young mum and dad had found it really difficult to look after because she was often very demanding of their attention and she could do things that put her at risk of injury. Mum in particular found it really difficult to look after her when our dad became ill and that’s when Andrea went into hospital for respite care. After about a year of respite care of varying lengths it was felt by mum and dad, and the social worker and doctors that it would be better for Andrea to be admitted to hospital on a permanent basis.
During Andrea’s stay in hospital she got the label of having ‘challenging behaviour’ and moved from ward to ward on a regular basis. No one really got close to Andrea because of the label she’d acquired and over a long period of time she became more and more withdrawn. Eventually she was put on a section of the Mental Health Act 1983 and placed on a secure unit for several years. When it was decided Andrea no longer needed to be on the secure unit she was moved to a small unit within the hospital grounds. It had previously been part of the housing estate for staff employed at the hospital and was run to be as much like an ordinary home in the community as possible. Andrea really liked living there. She liked having her own room and space to do things. She liked being able to choose the things she ate and going out shopping. I was really happy for her and for the first time she actually was able to visit my home and spend some time with her nephew and niece. Andrea was also able to visit Aunty Mary on several occasions before she died which really pleased both of them.
I kept thinking that it would be nice if she could move into a home in the community a little nearer where her family lived. When ‘Valuing People’ came along it was decided that Andrea should move into the community and that’s where Living Ambitions came in. They really worked closely with everyone who was involved with Andrea, and in particular Andrea herself. They facilitated a PCP and worked closely with everyone to identify some other people who could share Andrea’s life and home and they were even able to sort out a house for them all to live in. Everything was really positive and Andrea’s now been living in her own home with her friends for the last two years. She does lots of things now and goes to college, and has even taken up a hobby which she really enjoys. Its things like this that are really important and I’m pleased to say that Andrea’s been on holiday to Lanzarote. It’s not all that long ago that I didn’t think Andrea would be able to go for a day out to Blackpool never mind a holiday abroad. I’m really pleased for her and I know that mum and dad would be too. We see each other every week and she visits me and I visit her, we even go out shopping together just like sisters should. She doesn’t have challenging behaviour now and doesn’t get depressed, although she still gets anxious. When this happens she gets lots of support from the staff team and she gets the help from her GP and other professional just like you or I would.
Andrea’s got a life now, which she has some control over, she’ll always need to be supported and Living Ambitions have been able to give her the support when she needs it to make this happen.
Peter’s Story
I’d been going to the day centre for over ten years and really enjoyed it. All my friends went there who I’d known from school and we all got on really well together. We did lot’s of activities within the centre and sometimes went out for day or field trips to places of interest. My days were filled with things to do from 9.15am to 3.15pm every day of the week except Fridays when we finished at 2pm and also the last Friday of the month when we finished at lunchtime.
I never thought I’d want to leave until one day we had a day centre meeting and the manager, Tony, dropped a bombshell. He said that because of the way services had to change our day centred would eventually need to close. We all looked at each other and though what’s going to happen to us? Where will we go? What will we do? Everyone was really upset, all my friends, me too. We’d been together so long and got on really well. Tony did say that it wouldn’t ‘happen overnight, and that thing would be put in place to replace our day service something called a 'drop in centre'.
After a few weeks things started to change everyone had to have a person centred plan, I had a PATH, and what I said I would like to do was to get a part-time job. I was particularly interested in working in a supermarket. To cut a long story short I got some funding called ILF (Independent Living Fund) which meant I could employ someone to support me in the community to do the things I wanted to do. My social worker helped me to talk to some organisations who help to support people and it was like me interviewing them, it was great. I was really impressed with the people from Living Ambitions, they help me to put together a profile of the sort of person I’d like to chose to help and support me. We then interviewed some people and I was included on the interview panel. I chose Scott, he’s a really good bloke. He supports me in my voluntary job at the local supermarket, I’ve worked in a few areas in the store, stocking shelves, in the warehouse, and also in the bakery. I go there one and a half days a week. Scott’s been really patient and helped me to gain confidence. He’s always up beat about things, nothings too much trouble and we get on well. The good thing is that the supermarket have offered me a permanent job, part-time. I’ve made lots of new friends. I go on the staff nights out and the Christmas party. Scott also helps me with my Person Centred Plan and when I do some voluntary work in the local animal sanctuary. He’s really flexible and I hope we can keep working together for a long time. I still see my friends from the day centre too but I wouldn’t want to go back to the centre now. I like what I do now and wouldn’t want to change it at all.
Mr & Mrs J’s Story
Our son needs a high level of support at all times and we’d become increasingly concerned that we haven’t been able to support him to do some of the things that he enjoys doing as often as we should have liked to. A combination of fatigue and pressures from other areas of our family meant that we had begun to feel we were being pulled in all directions. Services that we’d had in the past to support our son only really scratched the surface of the support our son and our family required. With our son’s care manager we looked at options and did some planning with an independent Person Centred Plan facilitator. Armed with our son’s plan and some direct payments we approached Living Ambitions to provide an outreach service.
They are really good and very flexible. We had had some concerns as we have very strong religious beliefs. We had problems in the past with agencies we’d worked with around certain aspects of our faith and how they supported our son to pursue and adhere to his faith as well. This wasn’t a problem for Living Ambitions; they understood fully and did a lot of work with us to gain insight and understanding so that they are able to provide support appropriate to our sons, physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. Things have really improved for everyone in the family and we feel happy and confident in the way our son is supported. He really is enjoying his life now, doing the things he wants to do. His support workers really do work well with him and we’ve continued to develop his Person Centred Plan further. In fact he’s going to go to college for one afternoon each week supported by Living Ambitions. We never thought he’d be able to do that 18 months ago.
