Assurance for Jody

Jody was referred to us at SCC feeling overwhelmed and stressed by the process of managing her own budget allocated by social work.

Our manager, Karen, worked continuously with Jody to hire Shetland Cleaning Crew to help with the household cleaning and worked with Mind Your Head to carry out her support package.

Karen and Jody found that the role and responsibilities of being an employer were too stressful for Jody alone, so using these organisations allowed her to just pay invoices which was much more manageable. Initially everything was working well, until we noticed that Jody’s budget was not enough to cover all costs. Karen worked with her to build a true picture of the costs and took the discoveries to the council, with the social worker’s backing, to ask for an increase in budget. Unfortunately, this was not possible. But as Jody was starting to feel better, she decided to cut her service with Mind Your Head down, so she had more budget for the Cleaning Crew.

Jody now has more confidence about what she wants from her package and has chosen to start looking to recruit Personal Assistants to support her. Karen helped Jody to set up her PA’s very quickly so she could receive support during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Jody feels empowered by this process as when things were not working out exactly as she planned, she was able to make changes to the package and this has led to her feeling in control of her own support. In other circumstances she feels she could have entered a period of mental ill health but having the feeling of control has helped her to stay well.