Community Integrated Care’s Inspirational Christmas Message!

A team that receives support and also helps improve the support that others receive, as experts by experience, has produced an inspiring Christmas Message video for the Social Care sector.

Community Integrated Care’s Peer Reviewers have developed and starred in the video, which can be watched by clicking here. In it, they describe how securing their Peer Reviewer roles and receiving personalised support has changed their lives this year. They also have an important message for the social care sector, thanking the dedicated people who deliver fantastic support, not just at Christmas time – but all year around. It celebrates that with personalised support anything is possible.

The team who developed the video, Jamie, Heidi and Sushma , from Leicester, Ann Marie from Stockton, and James from Middlesbrough, have enjoyed an incredible year. They have assessed the support of many people who receive services from the charity, helping to ensure that they are personalised and promotes a great quality of life. They have also enjoyed huge personal achievements – including Heidi moving from receiving intensive support to living with complete independence in a new flat, James building his confidence so much that he has formed a band, and Sushma beginning a journey that will see her move from receiving support to becoming a Support Worker in the future.

They have also championed personalised support on high profile platforms. They developed an acclaimed guide on supporting people to vote at the 2015 General Election, which was downloaded by thousands of people working in the care sector and is shortlisted for the Citizenship Award at the upcoming 3rd Sector Care Awards. The Peer Reviewers have also shared their insight at major conferences, including The Laing Buisson Social Care Forum and at Westminster, where they presented to the former Care Minister, Norman Lamb MP.

Community Integrated Care is one of Britain’s biggest and most successful social care charities. This year, it launched The Golden Thread – a major project that sees it make significant investment in specialist personalisation training for all colleagues, and give the people it supports real input into organisational decision making. This has included the charity employing a dedicated team of Peer Reviewers in every region that it provides care and support in England and Scotland.

Ann-Marie Armstrong, Peer Reviewer, says, “Christmas is a time for reflection, celebration, and focussing on the positives in your life. This year we, as Peer Reviewers, have helped to change people’s lives. But since last Christmas, we have enjoyed great progress in our own lives too, as we have achieved our aspirations with personalised support. We wanted to make this video to say thank you to the dedicated people who work in social care, who enable people to lead great lives and achieve their dreams. I hope people working in social care enjoy watching this video, and can share the inspiration by sending it to their friends and colleagues.”