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Appreciating Sharon
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Shaun Peters, from the Learning Disability Team in Portsmouth, wrote to us expressing his appreciation for the outstanding work and effort of Sharon Farrar, a support worker from Choice Support.
Shaun says, “I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight Sharon Farrar, a member of Choice Support staff, for ongoing and outstanding work while supporting one of my clients, Jenny (not real name) in the Hampshire area.
Jenny is a lady with a moderate learning disability and a quiet reserved nature, who is inclined to place herself at some risk due to these vulnerabilities. She has spent many years feeling as though what she did, and who she was, were of no value or worth. Sharon, along with a small team of fellow support workers have managed to make Jenny feel wanted as well as important.
They have helped her move back to the area after many years away and move into sheltered living accommodation. A place with its own rhythms, somewhere she feels is not only her own home, one she keeps looking nice but is somewhere she actively fights to keep. After only a short period of time there, she met someone who she felt happy and relaxed with, before long they became engaged and got married last summer. Along the way there was a great deal of help she needed in terms of positive support, as well as a huge amount of emotional support, of which she needed a ready supply.
Unfortunately, Jenny’s husband was not a well man. Sharon and her colleagues were managing to support Jenny interspersed with helping her to understand, in an easy way, some of the intricacies of what might be happening, as well as helping with some of the practicalities of care that were going on for him.
Sadly, Jenny’s husband died a few weeks ago during what was already become a fast-changing landscape. The last time she was able to see him she had to wear the protective clothing and follow the social distancing that has become normal in a hospital environment. She would not have been able to manage this without the vital support she receives.
Since this, and in this increasingly restrictive time, Jenny, who can be tactile, has had to be gently reminded of the need for social distancing. Sharon has also supported her to move elsewhere in her accommodation block, all the while arranging the funeral which is due to take place at the end of next week. She has done all this while keeping me up to date with what has been going on.
I do not wish to suggest that all this has happened single-handedly. Choice Support have a very good team of support workers, but I think it is particularly important to recognise outstanding support and effort at such difficult times as these."
