August 20, 2014

From a Seed of an Idea…

To a spectacular service.

Our Shared Lives service is one of our biggest, with delivery in Scotland, Staffordshire, Wales and Merseyside. In case you haven’t come across this service, we offer family based placements for people with learning, physical and/or mental health needs. This works in a similar way to a foster placement but Shared Lives is specially designed for adults.

A couple of years ago Rita Lalley and Cath White from our Children and Families team came to the Innovation Committee to ask for funding to pilot a new version of this service. Since that time they’ve been piloting and have gone on to start formally delivering a new type of Shared Lives placement called ‘Transitions’. This approach is specialised for care leavers and young people aged under 25 who are not yet ready to live in Supported Living.

Currently we have four Shared Lives placements in Liverpool and the Wirral and a number of specialist carers who work exclusively with young people. Two of our carers in Liverpool, Karl and Joyce support three young people. One young man, Joe* is involved in our service user groups for Shared Lives Merseyside and also helps us regularly to interview for new Liverpool staff. Joe is now 23, has been with us since he was 20 years old. Since Joe has been placed with us he has attended college every year and has progressed to obtain a Level 1 Diploma (Distinction) in Land Based Studies. This year he has also been accepted on a BTEC Level 2 Diploma for ICT Practitioners at Liverpool Community College. Joe’s confidence has grown and grown and Karl describes how very slowly many of Joe’s ‘walls’ came down and how he is now a happy and optimistic young man, willing to take risks and meet the challenges that come his way.

Joe isn’t the only one making some great achievements in the Transitions service. We have another young person who arrived with us a year ago from a secure mental health unit due to paranoia, hallucinations, increased anxiety and agitation. He was also diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and depression. Last year he enrolled at College near to his home in South Liverpool; he completed the year, achieving a Level 2 NVQ Award in Business and Administration. He’s just starting his courses this year in ICT and will be retaking his GCSE’s in Maths and English.

This service isn’t just changing the lives of young people like Jason, it is making them unrecognisable. Earlier this year a social worker for another young person in our Transitions service sent the following email to us to commend the service: ‘I went to visit Kai last week, what a difference in his mood! I can see positive changes already, Kai was very chatty and would initiate conversation. He was able to express positive compliments and would engage in small talk which is highly unusual for Kai. He is very, very, proud of his room and I got the impression that there is a very good rapport between Kai and Geoff, his carer. Kai talked positively about wishing to return to education and I am hoping that this week, Kai will seek Geoff’s support to explore available options and enrol to commence GCSE’s in September. I cannot emphasise enough how impressed I am with Kai’s progress and hope Geoff will continue to guide Kai in the right direction.’