Elaine has been supported in Dundee’s Blackwood Court service for twelve years, staying with one other resident, Gemma. Previously, Elaine had been cared for at home by her parents, Christine and Alex.

Whilst moving Elaine from home to a 24/7 caring facility was a difficult decision, Christine and Alex feel it’s made a really positive difference to Elaine’s life. Christine described her feelings during the process. “It was a hugely difficult thing to allow somebody else to take over the care of our daughter, but we are so happy with what’s going on at Cornerstone and the support is amazing, you just have to go into the house to see that.”

Since Elaine moved to Blackwood Court Christine and Alex have found more time to spend with Elaine doing fun activities. Alex said, “we don’t have to deal with the day-to-day things. We can plan more activities together because we’ve got more time. We can give more time to her.”

Although Elaine no longer lives with Christine and Alex, they look forward to Sundays with Elaine when she comes to their house for lunch. They often have Elaine’s brother and sister, Mark and Kirsty, and other family members join them.

Additionally, Alex and Christine are in contact with Elaine daily through conversations on the phone or photo and video messages sent through Elaine’s support staff. Christine explains;

“They’ll always pass on anything that’s going on for Elaine, regardless of what it is. That’s hugely important to us. We have a whole family group chat that every so often we’ll ping these posts to so they can all see what Elaine gets up to as well.”

Often support staff (with Elaine, Christine and Alex’s consent) also share pictures of the amazing things Elaine gets up to on the Cornerstone Dundee, Perth and West Lothian Facebook page.

Alex and Christine explained the wide range of activities the staff would find for Elaine and Gemma to do before COVID. Support staff would take them shopping, on day trips to Glencoe, swimming and even more daring activities like abseiling. Elaine was even supported to ride in a pony-cart along Broughty Ferry Beach with Pony Access, a service that specialises in providing horse rides to wheelchair users.

Elaine also goes to concerts with staff and recently she has gone to a 90’s concert, as she is a huge music lover. “Staff try to give Elaine so many opportunities and we and Elaine really appreciate that.”

“As I say we can’t thank the team enough, you know, because they do go out of their way in caring for Elaine and making sure she’s got such a full life.”

If you would like to read more stories from the people we support you can click here.

You can read more about what the people we support, our colleagues and teams across Scotland have been up to in our Autumn Newsletter.