Mandy and Sarisa's Monday Meetings

Sarisa spends time every Monday with Mandy and sometimes they plan trips out at the weekend too. They've been telling us how Bury Shared Lives has brought fun into both their lives.

Sarisa, how do you use Shared Lives?

I used to go to the day centre on Mondays but then I started to do voluntary work at Cancer Research in the afternoon, so now I see Mandy on Mondays instead and she drops me off at work at the end of our session. 
I've had a couple of other day support carers before. I live long term with Jo and Tony (Shared Lives carers) and I have day support and respite with their daughter Lois. 

How did you get the placement with Mandy?

It was easy to get the placement; Mo (registered manager at Shared Lives) brought me round to visit Mandy and we chatted about our interests, what I would want from the sessions and we checked that Mandy's schedule works well with mine. She also came to visit my Shared Lives family. 

What sorts of things do you do together and how do you decide?

I see Mandy every Monday; we will have the occasional session on a different day too, if we have planned a trip out somewhere. We have lots of common interests such as shopping and crafts. I will text Mandy before we meet up to decide what we're going to do and we plan our trips and days out in advance together.

For our first session we went out shopping in Rawtenstall; I showed Mandy where I do my voluntary work and we had a coffee. Since then we have been on days out strawberry and blackcurrant picking and to the beach at St Anne's. We love cooking and baking but we try and do this around healthier options, such as stir-fries, salads. We made a batch of yummy cheese and onion whirls once but Mandy’s dog ate hers off the table! We baked cookies for the Persona Bake off too. I really enjoy gardening, I have been growing potatoes in Mandy's garden and we have been to the horticultural show in Ramsbottom. Sometimes we go shopping in Rawtenstall or Bury. When the weather isn't great we do cross stitching to make gifts, colour by numbers and other crafts. We did diamond art at Christmas to make cards and decorations. All the things we do can be bought in store or we order them off Amazon.

What has been good about your sessions with Mandy?

Me and Mandy have become friends and I like her company, I feel comfortable being in her home and talking to her. She has helped me develop my cooking skills and always suggests new things for us to try even if it doesn’t work out, like when we went to the drop in centre in Ramsbottom, we found it wasn’t for us but it was good to find out what they do there.

Mandy, tell us about your role with Shared Lives.

After I retired from being a support worker, I saw the advert for Shared Lives online by chance and thought that it would suit me as I was looking for something to do in my spare time. I have been a Shared Lives carer for 18 months now and at the moment I support Sarisa and another lady for day support.

I get a lot of enjoyment out of supporting with Shared lives, it gives me a routine when I am not spending time with my grandchildren and family and it gives me a purpose to be doing something again. I am always learning when I am with Sarisa about what young people like, technology and the internet – something she helps me with too! I enjoy spending time with Sarisa, she makes me smile. 

Shared Lives is special for the people we support because of the matching process, it has to work for both people involved and if either person isn’t happy on the initial visits, then you both have the choice to find someone different. I did once feel a match wasn't right because of the distance I would have to travel and knew I could say that the match wouldn’t suit me.

Me and Sarisa are always learning new things about each other, the other day I discovered her love for horror films which she was watching on my tv! We are always teaching each other things too, which is lovely for us both.

As a carer, I think Shared Lives is really special. The staff really get to know you while you are going through the application process, which builds your trust and confidence with them which I think is important. The only challenges I've had have been technical challenges with sending time sheets in but the team are so helpful and have helped me out straight away, they couldn’t be nicer!

What do you enjoy about Shared Lives?

Spending time with Sarisa is something I always look forward to, she makes me laugh all the time, we have so many laughs together and we have got to know each other so well. I enjoy how enthusiastic Sarisa is about trying out new activities and how much fun she is to be around.

If someone was thinking of working with Shared Lives, I would say go for it! I am going to recommend to my sister that she becomes a Shared Lives carer; I would recommend it to everyone as it is a great scheme to be a part of. I love the fact that even though I'm retired, I still have something to do that it gives me a purpose, it makes me feel good knowing that I am helping someone to live their best life.

Want to know more about Bury Shared Lives? Click here.

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