Recently, we have had a real success story to share from Banya’s Shared Lives program.
Shared Lives is a part of Banya where we accommodate adults with support and care needs. Often these are people that have learning difficulties, disabilities and other factors which mean they are unable to live independently, like most foster children who have been placed with Banya.
One of our Shared Lives tenants, James, has been living with his carers for more than 25 years. His carers fostered him when he was about 10 years old and then became Shared Lives carers under Banya so that they can continue to provide James with a family home. James is considered as part of the family and has developed attachment with the whole family network. The carers, Beth and Juan, had reached a point in their lives where they were making plans for what would happen, if both Shared lives carers were no longer able to provide James with a home, care and the support he needs. The possibility of James ending up in a new home or a residential home was something they have always worried about.
The carers, as well as the rest of the family, wanted to do everything in their power to ensure James was able to stay with them, in their family. They had built loving relationships over the years, plus, felt for James as somebody that struggled, more than most with these types of circumstances. The daughter of the carers and ‘sister’ of James was adamant that this not be the case and approached Banya with her mum and dad to see what we could do as a team to ensure that James was able to remain part of their family if their parents were to pass away.
Banya was able to arrange for James to remain within the household and under these circumstances, James was to be placed with Rebecca (the daughter), who would become the primary Shared Lives carer for James whom she views as a brother.
At Banya, we care about and take our matching process really seriously. This is one of the reasons that we have such high placement stability, and one of the reasons that our carers go to such lengths to ensure that the children, young people and adults with care and support needs who have become such a big part of these households are able to remain, undisturbed, within their family.
