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Case Studies
A pub solves a drinking problem....
Alison and Mark run a pub in a seaside town. Neil, who has a learning disability, spent a lot of time drinking in pubs around the town, and gradually spent more and more time at Alison’s pub. Alison and Mark were concerned about Neil's drinking, his behaviour and increasingly, his safety. He even began sleeping rough on their doorstep. Alison and Mark approached the council and were told about Shared Lives. They put themselves through the recruitment, training and approval procedures and became registered Shared Lives carers.
For the first time, Neil now looks people in the eye. He takes care of his appearance
and has control over his drinking; people say they can now understand his speech.
He has achieved long-held ambitions like going to Wembley. Neil says “Now I know
what I wanted: what I wanted was a family”. Alison says “His behaviour has changed
completely. He brings a whole new dimension to our lives, we get as much pleasure
as he does in our ‘family’. We are even thinking of getting out of the pub trade
to become full time carers”.
Sarah
Sarah, a woman in her late thirties, had been living alone and working as a
care assistant, when she suffered a severe stroke. At the point of being discharged
from hospital, Sarah had made considerable progress, but was still struggling
enormously with her memory and concentration and left alone, would simply sit
all day.
Sarah was matched with Lisa, a Shared Lives carer in the same town. She is able
to enjoy regular visits to and from her family and friends who all feel welcome
in Lisa’s home. Sarah can entertain them as she would have done in her own home
by making them drinks or food. Lisa helps Sarah to regain as many skills as
possible, including through helping her with an exercise programme, to attend
appointments, to regain lost skills like cooking, budgeting and looking after
a home and by prompting Sarah to initiate personal care. Together they are attending
various adult learning classes. Most importantly for Sarah though, she has not
become isolated and has been able to maintain her friendships and church activities
which were a key focus for her.
SWAPS and the geese
SWAPS Shared Lives service in Devon took a self-referral from a lady with a learning
disability who lived with her now ageing mother on a smallholding and wanted to
move out of the family home, not least because her mother wasn’t going to be able
to support her indefinitely. Her only specification was that she had to be able
to take her flock of geese with her. SWAPS like a challenge and were delighted
when they were able to match the lady with a Shared Lives carer in a rural family
who shared her enthusiasm for geese. It is hard to think of another kind of service
other than Shared Lives that would have been able to meet that request in a referral.
More stories from Shared Lives can be found here:
- The Guardian: http://bit.ly/fhHV3L
- The Sunday Telegraph: http://bit.ly/dvYdkZ
- Community Care magazine: http://bit.ly/9I50Ki
- The Social Care Institute for Excellence (video): http://bit.ly/gpUJkM
- Our blog: http://alexfoxblog.wordpress.com