A care service, Shared Lives, part of United Response formally based in the Kuumba Imani centre provides foster carers for adults.
The service, recently moved to Toxteth Town Hall, sees families welcome people into their homes supporting them to live their lives to the fullest and as independently as possible. The scheme offers an alternative to the usual housing support people with learning disabilities and/or autistic people have on offer to them, such as residential or home care.
They offer the opportunity to live in a family environment, allowing them to become part of a community, where they can develop relationships and grow in confidence. The support is ongoing and changes with the needs of the individual and is open to people aged 16 with no upper age limit.
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Shared Lives service manager Vanessa Perry told the ECHO: "Residential services or supported living services, as good as they may be, is not for everyone. Shared Lives is about ordinary family life and becoming part of a family.
"Care and support is provided by the shared lives carer so there is not a rotating team in place like supported living. It is just the shared lives carer, which offers continuity of care or support. For some people it can be a stepping stone to greater independence."
They carefully match carers and people and gradually introduce support, ensuring both are happy with the arrangement. This means a carer may only support someone for six months with the focus to build on independent skills, such as cooking, shopping, budgeting and cleaning, allowing them to live more independently in future.
People who are fairly independent this works as background care by having someone there to link in with and seek support when needed. For others who need much more, their support is bespoke and designed around individual needs.
Anne McDonough who retired after being a Shared Lives carer for 30 years said: "Don’t hesitate, go for it. Bring people into your family and you will love them as your own. Don’t think of this as a job, this is a way of life.
"Your life will be enriched, you will have more laughs than tears. People who have a disability should have the same quality of life as everyone and as a family.
"(My husband) Steve and I have had a really good life. We have met people we would never have met and have been to places we would have never gone, I have enjoyed my journey”.
Children in foster care can benefit too and Vanesa said: "If a young person has assessed needs the Foster Carer can apply to become a Shared Lives carer and then the family can stay together. The young person moves from a children’s service to an adults service without anything changing other than the Foster Carer becoming a Shared Lives carer."
A service user said: “My carer is good. She shows me how to cook and goes the shops with me to help me buy the stuff. I love my Shared Lives family”.
Another said: "My carer is kind and helpful to me. She helps me stay safe and well”.
For information on becoming a Shared Lives carer visit United Response HERE.
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