Admin Friday 18th June 2021
Our last blog for Learning Disability Week looks at the ‘I Enjoy My Life’ outcome from Stoke-on-Trent’s new, co-produced Learning Disability Strategy – Living My Best Life.
We all agree, enjoying our lives is very important, and the strategy recognises this too, it says ‘people want to live happy, fulfilling and interesting lives, often living with their families.’ As part of this, the strategy looks at support, helping people to make and keep friendships and relationships and supporting people to do more, and try new things.
People have spoken up about this before, telling us, “It’s very important, everyone should enjoy their lives, especially now. [after lockdown]” The Covid-19 restrictions have been particularly difficult for many people with learning disabilities, leaving them isolated from family and friends, and cut off from the support and services they need.
Even before the pandemic, a lack of support has always been a barrier to people enjoying their lives: “Improve the way people get support and how much they can get, this would make people’s lives better.”
The new startegy aims to offer more support and different support to people, assess people’s needs earlier and then put the right support in place as early as possible. Living My Best Life also includes ideas like ‘gig buddies’, volunteers who go to concerts with people to help them feel safe and confident. People told us “that’s a good idea, they need to match people up right, and they need to check they are safe.” People said “we all need more information about it, where to go, what to do, who to speak to.” One person shared their experience of a similar scheme and how important it was for them. “I used to have some people who did this for me, I went to some Port Vale games, went to two games, it was an amazing experience, I’d like to do it again in the future. I was really well looked after and cared for, they made sure I was safe.”
Staying in touch is also looked at in this part of the strategy. With the recent pandemic and lockdowns, keeping people digitally connected is a big part of Living My Best Life. People told us how important it was to stay connected. “Staying in touch with people is really important, if you don’t stay in touch then you start to worry about them and wonder if they are coping with everything, it stresses you out, not knowing what’s happening to them.”
“This [Zoom sessions and phone calls] is the only way some people can keep in touch, have contact with others, so yes, it’s important.”
People agreed that being able to make new friends or keep in touch with their long-term friends is really important, one person said “more friends, yes, but we need more groups and support to help people stay connected and be safe.”
Support was a key area in the feedback we collected from people, they said “getting the right support is very important, to make sure we all have the same chances in life.”
Another person said, “support is getting better, you need more contact with support workers though. Personal budgets help, and planning your own support helps too, managing your money to get what you need. That works if you can do it. All these things help with being more independent.”
“It [support with friendships] helps you to stop feeling down and sad, enjoy yourself and have fun. Getting the right support and information so they can stay connected with their friends.”
And, finally, “support is so important, if there is enough support, then everything works better.”
You can download Living My Best Life here: https://www.stoke.gov.uk/downloads/download/891/learning_disabilities_strategy
