Carol’s Story – Cheshire House

Cheshire House consists of eight self-contained flats with two communal lounges and has recently been reconfigured and refurbished providing residential accommodation and 24 hour nursing support with learning disability nurses. The configuration enables people to have greater independence, social and community inclusion.

Suitable for males and females with learning disability, Autism, dual diagnosis and severe challenging behaviour and a range of complex needs, the service supports those who require an enhanced or specialist level of support which is otherwise unavailable in community settings.

Carol lives at and is supported by the team at Cheshire House and is very keen to share her experience of life here. So in her own words Carol shares her story below;

“My name is Carol and I am 36 years old. I came from a hospital called Calderstones, which is in a small village called Whalley. I was in hospital for 15 years, which is a very long time. After time went on, I got better and better and was relieved to get out of there.

Calderstones staff found me a new place to live called Cheshire House which is in Sale, Trafford (Manchester) and I have now lived here for 16 months. I was a bit scared but eventually I became happy and used to the place.

I have worked towards getting voluntary work, so I went into Sale town centre and filled out a form for a charity shop called Re: Love & Care which helps Trafford Carers. I love the work they give me and I do various things like working on the till, steaming clothes, helping customers, and sorting out the toys and books.

I found it hard working on the till at first, but I got used to it and it made me feel great that people trust me and give me the responsibility to handle money which I have never done before. All the staff who I work with at the charity shop have welcomed me to the team. They are all friendly and want to talk to me. I work there twice a week. I find this a very relaxed place and I like being there.”

The support team at Cheshire House have worked closely with Carol to identify her goals and aspirations. She identified that she wanted to work with people and learn new skills.

The team encouraged Carol to take a lead on choosing a place of work and the team have then tailored the support that she needs so that she can attend twice a week.

Carol really enjoys serving people at the till and has recently identified that she would like to plan moving onto working in a café environment. Consensus’ in house behaviour practitioner has been involved and has worked with Carol to develop a structure to her weekly routine. Carol now has a plan to move onto different types of voluntary work with her long term goal to equip herself with skills to enter paid employment and it’s received a thumbs up from Carol!