Life partners – Rosie’s story

Life partners – Rosie’s story

Rosie was one of our very first tenants, one of our first life partners and we are delighted that she is still with us, thirteen years later.

When our founder and CEO, Gary Scott, first met Rosie she was living in a semi-secure unit in the north of England, and had been there for many years. She was constantly locked up in a tiny room and was regularly physically restrained by male staff. Her behaviour was very challenging and she had no interaction with the outside community. Zetetick was able to facilitate a multi-disciplinary team made up of partners in the local authority, NHS and care providers to place Rosie in one of our houses near family members in London.

Thirteen years later Rosie is loving her retirement in a safe environment in a Zetetick supported living home, and enjoying the freedom of going about her daily life in her local community – doing the things that most of us take for granted.

Life in a locked ward is no life

Rosie’s life has changed so much, but sadly her story is not uncommon. Other Zetetick tenants have similar histories. Recently the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) published their report ‘Close to Home’ which reviewed out of area placements for adults with mental health conditions. It found that people were kept in rehabilitation or secure units for long periods of time, often far away from friends and family.https://www.ndti.org.uk/resources/publications/close-to-home-review-and-recommendations-for-reducing-out-of-area-placement

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found these units to cause feelings of isolation, poor care experiences and impaired outcomes. In February the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) launched a legal challenge over the failure to move people with learning disabilities and autism out of secure hospitals into appropriate accommodation. https://zhc.org.uk/out-of-area-placements-is-supported-living-the-answer/

Life partners to those we support

We provide high-quality supported living homes to match the specific individual needs and preferences of our tenants as we source property from the private rental market at the time of referral. We focus on supporting tenants to live as independently as possible in their local communities and offer to be life partners for their housing needs.

Human rights are an issue here, and on May 18th 2020, a govt select committee  heard evidence on the issue of people not being allowed independent lives

We are so pleased that the work we do can help support people like Rosie to put their bad experiences behind them and live fulfilling lives, but others need our help too.

There are lots of ways you can support us to support others: care companies refer clients who need homes and let us take the pressure off property for you; landlords and letting agents in London and the South East let us know about available property – from one bedroom flats to large houses; companies looking to set up or expand corporate social responsibility programmes we can plan sponsorship or volunteer team building exercises; individual or group volunteer gardeners get your hands dirty and help us create and maintain lovely green spaces for our tenants; finally if you can spare some money a donation would help us to continue and expand our work.

We are continuing to operate during Covid-19 while following all government guidelines.

(Rosie’s name has been changed to protect her identity).