Your Call annual report 2012 - Blackburn with Darwen Borough ...

Adult social care
Leah Booth who is part of the Peer Support Scheme
COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERING
Leah Booth is volunteering to help others through what she
believes has been a ‘life changing’ difference to the way she
receives care.
The 21 year old who has spinal muscular atrophy uses a
wheel chair and needs full time care.
However, a few years ago she took up the direct payments
scheme and she says it changed her life completely.
“I was very unsure about it. Up until then my mum had done
it all so I was very scared about what would happen.
“I had questions like what if the people don’t turn up and
how will it all work?”
But eventually she came through the other side and says
she now ‘feels like a different person’.
Through direct payments she was able to choose and hire
three personal assistants to take over her care instead of
relying on her family.
“Before my mum did all the care but you don’t always want to
go out with your parents. They also found it hard to fit all around
normal family activities. So I stayed in a lot and was a bit of a
recluse. Now I can do what normal 21 year olds do – I can go on
holidays, spend time with my friends, anything I want.”
However, Leah said at time the process seems long winded and
can be stressful.
So when she was approached to join the Peer Support Scheme
to advise other people who are new to direct payments she
jumped at the chance.
She is now one of four volunteers who all receive direct
payments themselves.“I wished there had been someone else
who’d been through it all when I started,” she added.
The Peer Support Group will be part of the Your Support
YourChoice service. The new service will be an active partnership
of residents, charities, voluntary organisations carers and
community groups who will work together on a range of initiatives
that promote independence and preventative measures.