Help with supported living

[Mummyws]

Could anyone in Hertfordshire advise on time scales for finding suitable supported living placement for my son who is 26 with Williams syndrome. We have been trying to do this for almost 10 months now. I am becoming increasingly worried that there isn’t anything suitable for his needs. One of the problems is he has a supported job in a local town, so we are keen for him to travel to this as he has down for the last 4 years. Meaning location is limited

[LDAutie]

hi Mummyws unfortunately theres no set time to finding a place, as so many supported living and residential LD places are having trouble with staffing (not just due to being off with illness or stress but there is a rule many care servces are taking onboard which is staff have to have the two covid injections to work for them, in the service im in for example-i know many staff who have left in stead of getting dosed up because they have different issues around getting the covid injections.

besides complex needs being a barrier to finding a placement qiuckly for many people with LD so is matching people who live in these facilities with us in terms of personality.i relate very much to the situayion you and your son are going through now though and im quite depressed through it myself.

maybe this is worth looking at yourself for now-but i asked my social worker through my parents is it possible to still live here (my dad built a catio for my cat outside so itd take a lot of work for him to remove it and replace it) but have a LD service offering outreach to come in and offer the support i need than i woud get in looking for a new better suited supported living facility at this moment and i was told yes-it is possible i coud get it quicker but its all slow at the moment due to a backlog of cases and they also have to put priotiy on people whose lives are at risk.

my parents were also told the covid19 situation is slowing down things as they dont want people to move in and spread the illness however that was about one or two months ago.

i wonder if (for the time being) your son woud be able to carry on living where he is with outreach staff giving him his support while they carry on looking for a placement? it might be worth asking his social worker.

[BenjiB]

We are trying to do the same. I’m losing hope that there is a suitable place out there for my son. As LDAutie said there is a staffing crisis in care and many places aren’t filling the places they do have as they don’t have staff. Staffing is a historical problem in care bit made worse by COVID and the law that staff need to be double jabbed. I too know many many carers who have left the profession because of this. Add Brexit into the mix too and it’s a disaster.

My son is very complex and requires high staffing levels. I’ve had to widen my area massively which I’m not overly comfortable with. My son is at residential college (term time) at present and the worst thing for him would be that he has to come home as so much work has been done in preparation for him to move on.

I don’t know what the answer is except to just keep looking and making enquiries x

[Galwaybay2]

I'm in Herts and found that it was more about matching child to available placement. May be an idea to put your child on as many lists as you can and letting your contact in the ld team know. What areas/towns are you wanting?