A short story of a life, as told by Neil Cawthorn
- Stuart came to the PDS as one of our first clients in 2012.
- He had problems. Problems where he stayed, breaking the place up.
- Problems in hospital, where he often ended up. Problems with his money.
It might be said that HOLD, or Suffolk HOLD to give its proper name, saved his life. Under the scheme, Stuart had his own home; a comfortable house, not far from Southwold, in Suffolk He moved in. I waited to go and see him; to let the dust settle.
After 6 months, I thought it time to see how he was getting on. I drove to his home. I knocked on the door. A female voice said ‘Aren’t you going to open the door Stuart?’ Stuart opened the door. We said hello.
A female voice said ‘Aren’t you going to ask him in, Stuart?’ He asked me in. I went in. It was a nice home. Everything looked ‘OK’. There was one, young female support staff.
I asked him if he was OK. He said he was OK. I asked him if everything was alright in his new home. He said everything was alright. I looked around. There was no sign of damage, of things being broken, of windows being smashed.
Everything looked ‘OK’.
So, after a pause, I said to the young lady present – ‘So, ….no trouble?’
‘Oh, we don’t have any trouble here, do we Stuart?’
‘No’ said Stuart. And although it wouldn’t be quite the whole truth to say Stuart lived happily ever after, (as an example, the fence between him and next door had to be raised to over 12 feet, to stop the garden furniture ending up next door), broadly, Stuart was happy to the end of his days.
You need 4.2 staff to provide care for just one person 24 x 7. The cost of providing 2 staff to one patient (or client) 24 x 7 x 52 is around £250,000 a year. Stuart owned half his home with the help of Suffolk Building Society. The saving in public expenditure, ie what you and I and every other tax payer pay, in the first year was about what it cost to get Stuart into his own home. That cost saving continued every year for the rest of his life, with not only huge savings to the taxpayer but also to the huge benefit of Stuart and his improved quality of life.
Stuart: 18/7/1964-26/4/2025