Feeling alone in your home with no family close by can be a daunting and all too familiar feeling for many people in our community.

However, a Hampshire County Council volunteer scheme designed to give such people a sense of independence is helping those in need cope with the problems they face.

The Shared Lives programme provides caring homes for vulnerable adults who need extra support and was rated as “excellent” earlier this year by Commission for Social Care inspectors.

Many of the service users have learning difficulties, others have physical disabilities or mental health problems or are older people unable to live independently. 

Selena Stillwell, who has been involved with the programme for 20 years with scores of people living with her family at their Mytchett home, feels she has benefited from it as much as those who come to stay.

“It is enjoyable for me and also rewarding,” she said. “It is nice to give something back to the community as we have a responsibility to those around us.

“It has been great fun and it is nice to see people enjoy a family life. This is the bigger end of adopting somebody and looking after them.

“People are from various backgrounds but we have taken some on holiday with us and it is a good thing to do.

“To put something back is important. This was a way of doing something positive.”

Shared Lives — previously known as the Adult Placement Scheme — provides carers with full training and matches people with families based on specific criteria.

Mrs Stillwell, 54, said: “It is challenging sometimes, but it is very rewarding.

“I started this to look after a couple of elderly people in the beginning and it has gone from there really.

“I have had some really good support from social services and it is nice to meet other carers in the local area.

“I have had about ten or 15 people staying with me. Some people that we have gain skills to go and live on their own when they get to the point when they can manage the day-to-day tasks.

“It is nice to see people move on and achieve what they need to achieve. Some people have stayed just for respite and others for longer term.

“We receive good training and they match the person for you. I have not had that many problems. Most of the people we have had have been fine.

“Many of those who I have looked after have been of high needs. It is a diverse service that we give, from day care to respite, to full-time looking after.

“It is not a nine to five job and we do get paid for the care and keep, but I think that most carers would say that they did it for the person rather than the money.”

Having people from different backgrounds within the family unit has also given Mrs Stillwell’s children – Carlaine, 33, Gavin, 30 and David, 28 – and husband Graham, 54, a different perspective on life.

She said: “My children were quite small when I first started, but they have all left home now.

“We share our life with those who are here and it helped the children as they realised that others are not as fortunate as themselves — whether it be learning difficulties or another problem.

“The children have become better people as they have realised that there are other people out there when they were growing up.”

Mrs Stillwell, a nurse who has worked at Frimley Park Hospital, tries to keep in touch with as many people who she has helped as possible.

“It has a knock-on effect as we have become good friends with many of the people who have been here,” she said.  “They come to our barbecues and we are invited to their families’ get-togethers.

“I would encourage other people who have got the time and a spare room to get involved as it is satisfying.

“You just get a great satisfaction knowing that they are happy and somewhere where you know that they want to be and that they can live as part of a family.

“We develop a bond with our people and we try to keep in touch with them.

“They tend to stay around the area so we are able to keep in contact.  Some of them go out to college in the daytime and the thing about Shared Lives is that we can be flexible.”

Mrs Stillwell joined more than 40 other carers at a special celebration event at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens in Romsey to mark their Shared Lives involvement.

There she was presented with a commemorative clock and certificate as a thank-you for her 20 years’ dedication and met Cllr Felicity Hindson, the county council’s executive member for adult social care.

Mrs Stillwell added: “We went to the awards ceremony and it was lovely.

“We have been to a couple of their dos and they have always been a great evening.”

Cllr Hindson said: “Personalised care plans lie at the heart of the Shared Lives scheme that was previously known as the Adult Placement Service.

“And it is that, coupled with the hard work and dedication of our carers, which has made the scheme such a success.

“Sharing is what our carers excel at and it is what our service users benefit most from.”

Cllr Hindson, a Conservative, said the scheme enables some of the most vulnerable adults to live as part of a family, gives them vital support and friendship and it helps them gain the confidence to make their own choices about how they wish to live.

“It is really about supporting people to live as part of a community,” Cllr Hindson added.

For more information about beco-ming a carer visit www.hants.gov.uk under the social care and health section, or telephone Nicola Brown on 01256 362138.