Personalisation for Me

As a Service User, I have been going through Personalisation.  I am already a user of Direct Payments, where I have chosen to employ my carers and manage the hours when I want, and if I need to change them I negotiate with the people I employ, to work with me to live my life the way I need to.  It is important to note that what is right for me, is not right for another person, and other people may still want to have their care personalised with support, with someone else taking the responsibility.

To start with I was assessed by Social Services to look at the needs that I have.  This resulted in the amount of hours I would need help and support.  I have had a financial assessment.  This not only looks at the money I have coming in or going out, but also to look at benefits that I need to apply for.  It will then be decided how much I will be able to contribute to the support I need.  As the saying goes there is never a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

The next stage is a Support Plan, allowing me to make an attempt to fill in a Plan with advice, I will then get to go over it with Social Services.

Some of the Guidelines give a list of things to talk about.  They may be everything about my life, partly about my life, or it may have things missing that I want to have put in. In a way it reflects the old way of working to ensure that the needs of daily living are thought about, but allowing me to say – no that is not what I want to do.

So here is the list

• Staying as fit and well as possible
• Supporting good mental health and emotional wellbeing
• Managing my personal care and daily routines
• Managing my care and support through the night
• Help around my home
• Keeping mobile
• Managing my personal safety
• Managing my finances and personal business
• Maintaining close and personal relationships
• Keeping in touch with family and friends
• Supporting family life
• Support with caring for my pets
• Getting out and about, being involved in different things
• Getting to appointments
• Maintaining my religious obseervations
• Work, training or education
• Helping the friends and family who already help me
• Having more independence
• Improving the quality of my life
• Specialist support
• Covering emergency situations