Shared Lives is a model of care where where someone with a support need is matched with a compatible
Shared Lives carer and together they share family life and home life
and get involved in the community together.
My name’s Lindsay a Shared Lives carer and this is
Kurtis
Kurtis lives with myself, my husband Mark,
Eddie who is also on the Shared Lives scheme and Pixie the Chihuahua.
Shared Lives is an adult scheme for people with disabilities,
for people who have mental health issues, for people that need extra support
that need to live, well, that is best for them to live in a family environment.
Kurtis has lived with me since he was eight years old.
Erm, we fostered Kurtis so he’s been with us for over ten years now.
That’s of me at ten
When he turned eighteen, Kurtis, he didn’t become fostered anymore
so Shared Lives takes over from that.
It just felt like a natural progression really, you know, it was the right thing to do,
Kurtis has continued to flourish, he’s continued to grow in confidence, his speech is coming on.
I think there’s lots of benefits for Kurtis to stay here
because he’s with people that already care about him, people that want him here,
people that can help him grow in confidence.
Kurtis is part of our family and our community and he’s well loved.
The kind of support that a carer might need might be around really practical things,
It might be around finances, it could be about insurance,
it could be wanting advice if they want to go on holiday
or it could be about having a break themselves and making sure that they’re getting plenty of respite.
As a Shared Lives carer you have regular visits from the team
so we get plenty of phone calls.
If I’ve got an issue and I want to speak to somebody I can just ring up anytime,
got a phone number, got my own worker that comes out to do
regular visits to make sure that we’re both OK.
The Shared Lives carers don’t have to be qualified as Shared Lives carers
although there’s a vigorous process that they go through
but it’s less about having certain experience or skills
and it’s more about having the right attitude and the right values
and be in the right place to support somebody in your own home
Shared Lives is a brilliant solution for a lot of young people in transition.
We’re looking at people from the age of sixteen up to about twenty-five
with a more particular focus on the age eighteen
because that is quite literally when people transition from Children’s Services into Adult Services.
I think for a young person the period of transition can be practically challenging
but massively emotionally challenging
(Kurtis) Nice jeans
It’s a time where a lot of things change
and a lot of professionals refer to it as the cliff edge
and we’re trying to encourage people to build a strong foundation
and a strong consistent home to help people find their way through all of that
Kurtis likes to help out tidying in the house.
He can wash pots, he helps tidy his bedroom, he empties bins.
We all pitch in together as a family to help, you know, run the house as well really
I like cooking, I like computers, I like helping in the garden
He goes swimming lessons
Everything that we do Kurtis does with us.
We go on holidays abroad, we go camping in our camper,
he is a very well loved member of the family, aren’t you Kurtis?
As an adult with Shared Lives, Kurtis has to fund his own holidays now
and he has to, er, if we go out for a meal he can pay for himself
and Kurtis has to buy his own clothes.
I buy my own clothes because I became an adult.
I buy all of them myself.
This is my lovely top
because I like this top
My favourite clothes
Is these ones
To do Shared Lives and fostering I do think you have to be a certain kind of person.
You’ve got to have a big heart, you’ve got to be very nurturing,
you’ve got to enjoy looking after people
and erm
and we do, we have a good sense of humour
we have lots of laughs, erm, we get so much from it
and seeing Kurtis just, just thrive
and change and become more independent,
that’s got to be the reward really, for us.
They’re fantastic, they’re just brilliant, they’re the highlights of our lives aren’t you, you two.
Yeah
You’re a gem for me and Lindsay, aren’t you?
Yeah
Get to be with a family, don’t you, a family environment
and you’re going to be good independent young men aren’t you? Hu-hu [Eddie agrees]
[Kurtis] Yeah
[Mark laughs]
I like Mark and Lindsay because
Mark is very kind, lovely.
I like Lindsay and Mark
keep me happy
That's lovely