‘Sarah is part of my family’

You can now watch our new film about how people with mental ill health use Shared Lives to recover:  two minute version and seven minute version. 

Meanwhile, The Guardian shared some great Shared Lives stories in its feature on becoming a Shared Lives carer: 

One Shared Lives carer said of the woman with autism who came to live with her: “She didn’t want to leave the house and she didn’t really speak. Now she’s becoming much more independent, she walks everywhere and is always out and about.”

In Stafford, Chris Goodall was part of the Shared Lives and offenders scheme. An 18-year-old with a learning disability came to live with him after being released from youth custody, instead of going into an adult prison. “This was of course a better option for him,” Goodall says. “For the first three months, he was tagged and had an asbo and a curfew. But he stuck to it and the tag came off in due course. We got him a place at the nearby college and he received a certificate for 100% attendance in the first year.”