Kelly Rainey: From institutions to independence

Kelly Rainey has truly transformed her life. She has independence, enjoys an active social life and is thriving in her local community, something that seemed almost out of reach ten years ago.

Kelly has a learning disability, autism, and mental health needs, and lived in institutions for 12 years after her living situations broke down. She was placed in a long-stay hospital in the Northeast, far away from her hometown of Leeds. There, she was isolated from the community, had 4:1 staffing because she had “behaviours of concern,” and was only allowed 20 minutes of unsupervised time each day. Unsurprisingly, in this setting, her behaviour deteriorated.

This was not how Kelly wanted to live.

Fortunately, with the support of the government’s Transforming Care programme, Kelly was able to change her story. Work began to help her to move back to Leeds. Kelly has Attachment Disorder, so learning to work with an entirely new staff team was a big challenge, but step by step, Kelly gradually came to trust her support team at Aspire and tell them how she liked her support to be delivered.

After a lot of hard work by Kelly and her support team, she moved into her own home in 2019 and has been supported to live there happily ever since, which has completely changed her life.

She was supported to make all of the decisions about her décor and furnishings and interviewed everyone who applied to be a member of her support team. She developed a quiz to test staff engagement and listening, and awarded staff with a prize if they got the questions right!

Crucially, after many years of not being in touch with her family, Kelly has re-connected with them and now sees her mum, dad, brothers, sisters and step-brother regularly. She also has three young nieces whom she adores. She is delighted to be in touch with her family again, and they are very proud of her, too.

“Kelly’s achievements go on and on! She has started attending college and day services for the first time in her life.”

Having previously been prevented from venturing into the community, Kelly now goes into the community every day and loves making new friends. She loves music, dancing, socialising, and parties, and is good with reading, numbers and finding her way around. She suggested having a ‘Bake Off’ competition during Leeds Learning Disability Week and went live on Facebook during the week to do a baking demonstration. Recently, Kelly successfully auditioned to be in a musical theatre group and rehearsals will start soon. She feels confident to try new things and has planned and taken several holidays, including to Scarborough, as she loves the seaside.

Last year, Kelly became engaged to Danny, who she met at the day centre she attends.

Kelly is always ready to tackle a challenge. She has worked hard to learn lots of new skills so that she can be supported to run her own home, from planning her menus and cooking, to cleaning the house, to paying bills and arranging for things to be repaired. She has also learnt to better manage her behaviours, leading to her taking less medication and her staffing levels reducing to 2:1. She has made amazing progress, and her support team think she’s a star.

Kelly’s also keen to help others follow the same path. When her support provider Aspire set up a new service for people with autism, they invited Kelly to talk to prospective family carers and their children about her experience of moving out of hospital. Given how well the Transforming Care pilot went for Kelly, Aspire has worked with the local authority to develop a new supported living service for 14 more people with autism and/or behaviours of concern.

The difference in Kelly’s life is phenomenal. She’s got engaged, reconnected with her mum and is out and about in the community, deciding how she wants to live her life. Kelly is planning a garden party in June to celebrate the fifth anniversary of returning to Leeds and moving into my new home. Her family, friends and staff team will be invited and there will be food, drink, music, dancing and pass the parcel to celebrate her incredible achievements.