Independent living transcripts

Hannah:

00:00-00:08

Who helps you with employment? You know, in general, who helps you with employment? How have you found jobs? Who helps you?

Alex:

00:08-00:23

Um so United Response, United Response helped me find jobs, like Amy. She, she um, from United Response, she’s like helped me like, like. Helped me with like with the sport, like with the jobs and all that stuff.

Hannah:

00:23-00:24

And who’s Amy?

Alex:

00:25-00:27

Um she’s one of the jobs coach, job coach.

Hannah:

00:28-00:35

And what do you do together to um find jobs? How do you find jobs together?

Alex:

00:35-00:44

Um so we find jobs on in- on Indeed and maybe out and about places and handing in, handing in, handing out CVs.

Hannah:

00:45-00:49

And how have you found the support from United Response?

Alex:

00:49-00:57

Um I found it um I found it really good, interesting, and maybe I think it’s taken me up to another passion.

Hannah:

00:58-01:07

And do you want to just talk to us about the role that you’re in now and how, you know, is, is it right that you’re helping other people with learning disabilities?

Alex:

01:07-01:20

Yeah, yeah. So in the role, that I’m in now, yeah, helping other people with disabilities. I’d like to um like try and help them a bit, whatever, whatever, whatever they’re going through.

Hannah:

01:20-01:22

And what’s your role title?

Alex:

01:22 -01:28

So, what’s the role title? I can’t remember now.

Hannah:

01:28-01:29

It’s okay.

Speaker 1:

01:34-01:36

[whispers] You’re a UR consultant

Hannah:

01:36-01:52

So you’re a UR consultant. Um, so what things have you done while, you know, you’ve been at United Response? Have you been, have you worked on any um projects or have you been in any calls or meetings?

Alex:

01:54-01:58

Um yeah, I’ve been in meetings.

Hannah:

01:58-02:01

And have you liked working for United Response? Yeah?

Alex:

02:01-02:02

Yeah, yeah.

Hannah:

02:02-02:07

And do you like the fact that you, you know, you can help other people with learning disabilities?

Alex:

02:07-02:26

Yeah, yeah. Help other people. And I also do um this new job, what I’ve, what I’ve done, what um United Response have given me. It’s called um Easy Readie. Let me say that again. Easy.

Speaker 1:

02:28-02:29

[Whispers] Easy Read Training

Alex:

02:29-02:31

Easy Read Training.

Hannah:

02:32-02:34

And are you looking to do some more work in that?

Alex:

02:34-02:37

Yeah, yeah. I’m looking at doing some more work. Hopefully, I get more.

Ben:

00:00-00:01

David, where do you live now?

David:

00:01-00:45

I used to live in Newton Abbot, but the last five I moved to Newton Abbot. But I used to live in Hollington first. So er I was in Hollington, and support workers, they really scared me, because they did not have enough support for um. I was with Rock first before United Response. So um they supported really well there. My dad didn’t say. So um that really the support didn’t go very well in Hollington. And I had a college down in Hollington as well. They er did education persons and life skills in college and independence. And then I went to Foxes as a college as well. I’ve been to school.

Speaker 1:

00:45-00:4

Would it help if Ben reminded you of the question, David, of where you’re living now? Yeah? Ben do you want to ask that question again?

David:

00:53-00:56

Sorry, Ben. You can get that done because we’re interrupted.

Ben:

00:56-00:57

David, where are you living now?

David:

00:57-01:15

I’m still living in Newton Abbot still. Because um I used to live in Hollington first, before I came to United Response after. But I was in Rock first to start with, before I moved to pay- Newton Abbot. I still live in Newton Abbot now. So I’m happy with where I am now.

Ben:

01:18-01:19

Who, who do you live with?

David:

01:20-01:56

I used to live with um I had flatmates first, so I started came to Newton Abbot after. So I used to live with um with Kaya and Zach and Jamie Grew. I used to live with them first. There was a two-bedroom flat in Paignton, and they er that that is, but I don’t live with them anymore. They’re they’re not very nice, not very nice people towards me and type of behaviour. They didn’t back bad behaviour, and they’ve been back.

Ben:

01:57-01:59

Did they used to bully you when you were there?

David:

01:59-02:32

Yes, they were bullying me in Paignton as well. And they um one of them wasn’t very nice. I got strangled by my neck right here, and this bloke called Trevor rescued me as well. Another person attacked him, and I got attacked. So I, in the end, last year, I had Zach chased. He used to. Lives in Paignton in the [inaudible] . He gets upstairs all the time, so I used to live with him as well. I used to live in Paignton before.

Speaker 1:

02:32-02:34

What about now? Who do you live with now?

Ben:

02:34-02:36

David, who do you live with now? Dave

David:

02:36-02:39

I live with. I live with, with. I live with Willow now.

Speaker 1:

02:41-02:44

Well, kind of. Can you talk about that a bit more?

David:

02:45-03:10

Because I like is that is. Where I live now, Newton Abbot. I I can’t stand, but I, in, I  want to move out. Out of Newton Abbot. I’d still be in Newton Abbot, not I want to be close to Hannah, really, because I like Hannah Dallon more. I’d still be in Newton Abbot. I’d go up. It would be near. So I can’t stand. I can’t stand Newton Abbot. I hate Newton Abbot for years.

Ben:

03:11-03:14

Would you like to live on your own, David, in Newton Abbot?

David:

03:14-03:19

I’d still be on my own in Newton Abbot, yes, but I can’t stand the flat. That’s why I get all the noises.

Speaker 1:

03:19-03:20

 You live on your own now, David, don’t you?

David:

03:20-03:38

I live by myself and the noise upstairs drives me crazy. So I, I spoke to my dad. He wasn’t too happy and he recorded the noises upstairs in the flat. It’s too much, too much noisy. And I spoke, it’s not, I feel it’s not very, it’s not very nice up there, upstairs. So.

Speaker 1:

03:39-03:40

Focus on the positives.

David:

03:40-03:48

There’s not a positive side. That is fair on me. It’s not great.

Jan:

03:55-03:59

[Whispers] What would your ideal home be like?

Ben:

03:59-04:04

Oh yeah, David, what would your home, home, home, home feeling be like?

David:

04:05-04:07

Sorry, say that again, say that again Ben. I didn’t hear that bit.

Ben:

04:08-04:12

Your ideal home be like.

David:

04:11-04:43

My ideal home. In the future, my idea is I want to buy my own place. And I want to live in the States of America because I love Florida. It’s really, really hot. And I love holidays there. Good, good to live. And I see Mum and Dad in Newbury will fly out to see me if they can. If I go with my friends in California, but I’ll meet up with my Mum, meet up with my Mum and Dad soon. I do miss my Mum and Dad here right now. I miss them quite a lot.

Peter:

00:00-00:01

Who do you live with?

Flo:

00:02-00:23

Um so I live with two people that usually come here, but they’re not here today. And they’re also my um yeah, they’re also my housemates. I live with them. So I live with Jamie and Lewis and another girl, Alicia.

Sam:

00:24-00:26

How long have you lived there?

Flo:

00:26-00:34

Er I moved um last April, I think. Moved in last April.

Sam:

00:35-00:38

What’s the best thing about where you are?

Flo:

00:39-01:00

Um I like being able to er choose meals and um for the week. And um I like to be, I like um the fact that I can um cook. I can do more cooking.

Peter:

01:01-01:08

Do you do like a do you like a set menu? Do you like to do a menu for you’re what you’re going to eat every day?

Flo:

01:08-01:29

Yeah, I do like. So for every like every week, I do like a meal plan like for different meals each day. But sometimes, like two days, um we have like a meal all together. So sometimes it’s our own, and then sometimes it’s a meal all together.

Sam:

01:29-01:32

What’s the best thing about living with friends?

Flo:

01:33-01:51

Um, I guess just like being with them or like going out and doing things. Like I like to.  We like to go bowling or like to the cinema and stuff and do fun things.

Donna:

00:04-00:08

Can you explain what Sel- Selbourne Place was like?

Julian:

00:09-00:53

Um Selbourne Place. Um that is a big, big er house er at Selbourne. Um we do um um all my pictures from um that one, Celia, one picture. And that’s Emma. And that’s Jenny. Jenny McDonald.

Donna:

00:53-00:53

Okay.

Julian:

00:54-01:12

Yeah. Er. That’s taken to um um. That’s that’s Richard Honor. And that’s me. Yeah.

Donna:

01:12-01:18

Okay. So um were these your flatmates or your friends?

Julian:

01:19-01:21

Um we’ll call it friends.

Donna:

01:22-01:31

Okay. So, s- so what, what, what, what was it like living, living in Selbourne Place?

Julian:

01:33-01:51

Um, um yeah, I’ve been a bit. I’ve been there be- before that. Yes, I have. Yeah.

Donna:

01:52-01:55

And how long have you lived, lived in Selbourne Place for?

Julian:

01:56-02:03

Um because it’s ages ago.

Mary-Ann:

02:05-02:07

Were you there for about five years?

Julian:

02:08-02:09

Five years.

Mary-Ann:

02:10-02:11

I think it was five years

Julian:

02:11-02:12

Yeah, yeah.

Sam:

00:00-00:03

Have you ever had a job or volunteered?

Kelly:

00:03-00:03

No.

Sam:

00:10-00:11

Would you like to?

Kelly:

00:11-00:27

I think at the minute, no, because I enjoy doing day centre, and I’m learning new skills from there. Like I’m learning how to use the sewing machine. I’ve kind of picked up doing a bit of crochet again. And I enjoy doing the choir and like doing the podcast.

Sam:

00:33-00:36

Who do you live with, and what’s your routine like?

Kelly:

00:36-01:24

I live at Brook Street, and there’s nine other people that live there. And so like Mondays, I have five hours of support so I can do an activity: go swimming or go cinema or go to Nottingham or Chesterfield or Matlock. Tuesdays, I go to day centre, and then I have an hour of support in the evening. And then, and then podcast. And then Wednesdays, I’ve got day centre, and then they have tea time support. Thursdays, day centre, and then I come to choir. And then Fridays, I have tea time support. Saturday, I have a chunk of support so I can do an activity. And then Sunday, I have support for like dinner time and to do something if I don’t want to do it.

Sam:

01:30-01:32

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

Kelly:

01:33-01:52

I like doing arts and crafts. I do um some, I’ve started doing a bit of crochet um or looking for ideas of like new things to do in my support or maybe something I want to learn how to cook or something like that.

Sam:

00:00-00:01

Where do you live?

Lewis:

00:02-00:03

York.

Sam:

00:06-00:09

What is the best thing about having your own flat?

Lewis:

00:10-00:23

Very fascinating. Um. Sometimes I want to be independent, and I just want to be like my sister and my cousin.

Sam:

00:24-00:26

What support do you get in your flat?

Lewis:

00:28-00:46

So I get staff coming in every morning um, get me up, clean all my legs. Yeah. And, and then after that, they make me breakfast. And then after the breakfast, go, go out and do stuff.

Sam:

00:47-00:51

How much help do you need in your flat?

Lewis:

00:53-00:56

Nearly every day.

Sam:

00:56-00:59

How much help do you get in your flat?

Lewis:

00:59-01:09

So I get one-to-one like on Saturday and Sunday and a Thursday and a Wednesday.

Sam:

01:10-01:12

What do you do with your one-to-one?

Lewis:

01:14-01:26

So they, I ask them to come with me to go to tennis on a Sunday. And then on a Wednesday, I do my cleaning and make my beds change. And yeah.

Sam:

01:27-01:29

Where, where do you live before?

Lewis:

01:30-01:39

I used to live at Moreton Way. And I used to live with three other people.

Sam:

01:39-01:41

Who, who are your friends?

Lewis:

01:45-01:47

Alicia, Flo, and Jamie.

Sam:

01:48-01:51

What are you looking forward to in the future?

Lewis:

01:54-02:02

Um see Jamie and Flo a bit more as I’m not seeing them at the at the while.

Sam:

02:04-02:06

What do you love most about your life?

Lewis:

02:08-02:16

Seeing all my friends and how they are and, and miss. Sometimes I miss my family, but I don’t.

Sam:

02:17-02:23

How has Down syndrome work fit

Lewis:

02:24-02:25

Oh yeah.

Sam:

02:25-02:27

Helped you?

Lewis:

02:27-02:41

So work fit. So Becky, Becky, who does the DS work fit, got me the job at Dunelm. And I met the manager. He was nice. Everyone was really nice.

Michael:

00:00-00:07

So I get everything what I needed for my big famous. And then I do everything what I can do, really. So that’s all.

Lewis:

00:11-00:15

Why do you choose to live with United Response?

Michael:

00:15-01:30

Um because um it’s the better way to do that. Um is when I used to live with my mum and my dad, my dad crashed into my mum’s car. And when she’s drived her car, she picked me up at Ashgate. And then she came back, and then the car came up and um basically um because that was so dangerous. And I thought people can’t get past the building um because there were nursery, nursery schools up there. And I used to live with my mother, um go shop, drugens, me and her go down for a walk down there, come back up, back up, rain, Clifford Street. Like we’d get like ignorant people like next door neighbours, throwing eggs at us, er basically just messing about. If you got like a big speaker, they should turn it down at the middle of the night because people were sleeping. Um then um we sometimes get police involved with that, with people’s behaviour, and they should get arrested for what they’ve done.

Pam:

00:00-00:10

Whe- whe- oh, When I lived at Banting House, there was quite a few in the actual yard.

Donna:

00:10-00:10

Yeah.

Pam:

00:10-00:20

There was quite a few sheds where they er had their tools in because we used to sell fresh um veggies and er fruit and everything.

Donna:

00:20-00:20

Okay.

Pam:

00:20-01:12

And so obviously, we did that. And the blokes um used to chop wood for firewood. And so we, and so outside, outside our house, we used to just sell quite a lot of things. And obviously, we made a lot of money for them. And we had a workshop where people could go in and we had the full, we had a full loom. And one of the female ladies, she did some beautiful, beautiful, beautiful rug rugs. And there again, all of those was for sale as well. And then Rob, who was another resident, he had a little small er loom. And there again, he did er handles. And then there was another one, loom. And that was when I did the handbags.

Donna:

01:12-01:13

Oh, you used make handbags?

Pam:

01:13-01:24

And so obviously, Christina used to work with us. Obviously, she did the sewing. And there again, we sold so many things and everything. It was really good.

Alex:

00:00-00:03

How did, did you decide what you wanted to do with your life?

Raymond:

00:04-00:10

Oh yeah. Er, yeah yes, I did. Yes. Yes. Yes, I did. Yeah.

Alex:

00:10-00:12

What was that?

Raymond:

00:15-01:13

Well um er, yes, I, I decided I wanted to do what I did and I sort of like I um, um, er said had a. I’d had a sort of like a um, um rehab- rehabilitation officer sort of come around. And um he sort of like he sort of like sort of like said about he said about going to this um R RNIB Redhill College. It’s now closed, I think, now er. And, and er yeah. And um er um there was a lot of er.

Alex:

01:14-01:17

Did you feel that you had a lot of choice when you went to that college?

Raymond:

01:17-01:20

Yes, I did. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Alex:

01:22-01:27

So what they they had other like, what like er, like stuff to get into work?

Raymond:

01:28-01:30

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Alex:

01:30-01:33

Like a foundation course or anything like that?

Raymond:

01:33-01:36

Er, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Alex:

01:37-01:42

Um have you ever had a job?

Raymond:

01:43-02:46

Um, um, um I did a bit of um I did a bit of work experience in from about ’92 to ’95 um at a company for a company called JOOLES. And they they they they they published and print they published and printed greetings cards for all occasions, birthdays, christenings, Christmas. Er and I, I, I worked, worked, worked at this um this trading estate on in St. Margaret’s. Er there was, their, their, their, their their fac- their company was based um. Er yes. Yeah.

Alex:

02:46-02:55

So over your lifetime, did you find it quite hard to find work? Did you just forget to time to get you into the right?

Raymond:

02:55-02:57

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Alex:

02:57-02:58

Into the right um.

Raymond:

02:58-04:08

Yes. Yes. Because um for for 24 year, 24 years, I, I was a, a what was then um, er at one time called a work centre, a work centre um at er Geneva Road, Kingston. And there was sort of like a bit of a bit of difficulty there because um there was sort of like I did, had an interview in March, and I didn’t start the centre until October. About nearly seven months between, between I between me er having the interview and then um er starting the centre because there was a bit of a hold-up. There was a hold-up with this author- this er local authority, local authority paying for the, paying for me to get, go to this um er centre.

Alex:

04:08-04:10

Oh right. Did it get. Did it get better?

Raymond:

04:11-04:48

Yes. Er, er, er, um eventually, eventually, by hand, by some, some means, I got this a letter, letter from, from the centre saying that I there was a place for me. There was a place for me at the centre. And would I like to start there? And then I did on the on the  7th of October, ’71. And I was there for 24 years 2 months, just over two months.

Donna:

00:00-00:03

Who is your favourite support worker?

Sarah:

00:03-00:04

Fiona.

Donna:

00:06-00:8

Fiona. She she’s wonderful isn’t she? What do you love about her?

Sarah:

00:09-00:25

We er, we er, we er we er sit here, here so like we sit with, with, sit here with her at 9 o’clock, o, o’clock at night for half an hour, hour during our sleep ins.

Donna:

00:26-00:29

Oh, she does sleepings here a- a- a- and.

Sarah:

00:29-00:38

And we yes, we often see and I often sit with, with Pat and Carol during half shifts.

Donna:

00:39-00:47

Oh, wow. She does so many things for you people. She helps you clean, helps you with the chores. She helps you with anything you need, right?

Sarah:

00:48-00:52

She helped me with the bed. Helped me with the bed.

Donna:

00:52-00:54

She helps you with the bed, tidying up your bed.

Sarah:

00:54-00:55

She helped me with my hair.

Donna:

00:55-01:02

Do your hair make you look presentable?  Um if you want to wear makeup, do you wear makeup?

Sarah:

01:02-01:02

No.

Donna:

01:02-01:11

Oh, you don’t wear. So, so, so, so where you do your hair and um wherever you want. It helps you decide what you want to wear, isn’t it? She, she, she, she, she guides you, right?

Sarah:

01:11-01:16

Yeah, yeah. And I just decide myself self, self.

Donna:

01:16-01:22

Oh, you choose what you want to wear. S- say you want to wear a skirt or trousers. Oh, you, you pick them, isn’t it?

Sarah:

01:22-01:26

Yeah and I just take things out of the wardrobe myself.

Donna:

01:26-01:32

Oh, yes. So, and she guides you to be with, with your house.

Sarah:

01:32-01:39

Yeah. And she checks if I’m, if I’m dry, dry af- dry after the shower.

Donna:

01:39-01:43

Oh, yeah. You’re dry properly. Your skin dry and lotion, lotion.

Sarah:

01:43-01:45

Yeah. Put any lotion on it.

Donna:

01:45-01:50

Yeah. Lotion. And um per-, you don’t wear perfume do you? Perf-. If you, if you.

Sarah:

01:51-01:54

Some- sometimes wear perfume. Not all the time.

Donna:

01:54-02:11

All the time. Especially if you go out to the cinema with your frien- cinema. Or you might do. Um and sh- sh- sh- she she’s just your just kind. She she she doesn’t just say, “Oh, I do it another day. Oh I’ll do it another day”, she she’ll be kind, isn’t it?

Sarah:

02:11-02:11

Yeah.

Donna:

02:13-02:21

Um how long have you lived here in this house for? In this supportive living for?

Sarah:

02:21-02:23

Since er May of 2012.