Individual Spotlight: Marc
Join Shared Lives Week from Monday 17 – Friday 21 June 2019! This week, we are celebrating the amazing work that Shared Lives Carers all over the country do, as well as the teams of people who support them, like our very own Shared Lives team here at Surrey Choices. Make sure you follow our social media accounts to see the latest updates from the team during Shared Lives Week. Ever wanted to know what a day as a Shared Lives Carer looks like? Read the story below to find out!
How many times a week do you open up your home to your Shared Lives person?
My husband and I support our Shared Lives person 7 days a week. One day of the week they attend one of the Surrey Choices activity centres.
We would love to hear what a typical day is like for you, can you share with us what you normally do?
First thing in the morning, we wake our Shared Lives person to prompt them to have wash and get dressed for the day. We will enjoy breakfast together each day, which normally includes having cereal, toast, yoghurt or fruit and a hot drink.
If it is a non-working day for example, at the weekend or on a holiday, we plan what to do for the day together which is always weather dependant! We always encourage our Shared Lives person to be the decision maker and let them lead us into what they would like to do on that day.
Since joining the Shared Lives Scheme, has your work life been impacted at all?
I changed my working pattern two years ago to working half the amount I was previously. This was because we wanted to enjoy more of home life and so I was able to halve my working week and be here more for our Shared Lives Person. The scheme is very flexible that some other Carers haven’t seen any impact on their working life whilst supporting someone.
When you are apart during the day, how often do you keep in contact with each other?
We have each others phone numbers as well as the telephone number for the activity centre that our Shared Lives person attends. We can pop it at any time they are there and we have done in the past to check in and see what sort of things they do during the day.
What is your typical evening routine?
When it comes to dinner, I normally cook all of the meals but we both like to involve our Shared Lives person. We like to ask them for ideas on what they would like to eat and often helps with preparing the food like cutting the vegetables and getting bits ready.
We always eat our meals around the dining table together and like to talk about our day and what each of us learnt. We have family and friends visiting too where we all get to relax together, watch television and generally chill out together! We all love hot chocolate and most nights enjoy a cup of Ovaltine together before saying goodnight and going to bed.
What is your favourite part of the day?
The whole day!
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