Jason – Support Brokerage

Jason’s sister had a conversation with Liz  and during this conversation it was identified that Jason needed some help getting things sorted out for him and his mum.

Jasons college course was about to finish and he had nothing to do afterwards, he was worried about becoming lonely and bored.  We started by looking at things for Jason to do when his college course finished.

Jason met with Liz a few times and she got to know him, Liz listened to what was important to Jason and the things that he was interested in.  Together they developed a Support Plan and looked at the opportunities that were available to Jason in the local community.

The Support Plan was handed to the Social Worker and they took this back to their department and Jason’s plan was agreed and he was able to access a personal budget to put his ideas into place.

Jason made use of the Personal Budget he had been given by going along to activities delivered by local organisations but one of the main things he desperately wanted to do was care for dogs, he was really specific in my Support Plan that he wanted to work with dogs and take them for walks. Jason had tried to volunteer with a local branch of a national charity but had not had a lot of success with them. So we had a look around and discovered only a mile up the road from where Jason lived was a charity taking care of rescue dogs, after a telephone conversation and a visit Jason started volunteering there two days a week and he loved it.

Life after college settled down for Jason and he was really enjoying the variety of things he had the chance to do. Jason was receiving some 1:1 support to go and do different things every now and then, the odd night out, visiting friends in towns where Jason had lived before and he even had a weekend in London.

A couple of years went by and it had reached the stage where Jasons mum was ready to do her own thing and Jason wanted the chance to live in my own place. So back to the drawing board and exploring what could be possible. It became clear that Jason wanted to stay in the house that he had been living in and his mum wanted a change of scene.

We worked together again and we had a search and found a flat available in a local sheltered living scheme, again only a mile or so away from where Jason and his mum lived. Jasons Mum and Liz went for a look around and it ticked most of the boxes. Jasons Mum decided she wanted to go ahead and the flat was secured and before we knew it she had moved in…. after a lot of decorating was done by Jasons sister.

So a new lease of life for Jason’s mum and Jason, but still close enough to each other to keep in touch and be there for each other.

Jason soon made his place his own and he was enjoying having his own space and still going and doing things for himself.

After a few years Jason decided he would like to find someone to share his home with, for the company but also to share some of the living expenses.

We asked the Social work team if anyone was looking for a place to live, although a couple of people were identified it didn’t work out for one reason or another.

So we started a search, it just so happened that Imagineer were also supporting someone to move up to the area where Jason lived for their work.

Bingo! It just made sense to ask him if he would like to meet Jason. Which he did and they got on like a house on fire…. well not literally

So we started to make the steps to make this possible, involving the right people, ensuring the funding was in place, making sure the support would work well and considering any contingency plans that would need to be put in place.

We went at the right pace so that both Jason and his new house mate could be confident they were making the right decision and 6 months down the line they are celebrating sharing the house together.