New future at the touch of a button for people with learning difficulties in Dorset and Hampshire (From Bournemouth Echo)

New future at the touch of a button for people with learning difficulties in Dorset and Hampshire

7:40pm Tuesday 30th June 2009 in

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MAUREEN has been celebrating two major milestones.

Not only has she reached her 70th birthday, but she has achieved independence after 15 years of residential care and supported living.

She is one of the success stories from a scheme pioneered in Dorset and Hampshire to enhance the lives of people with learning disabilities. It is to be expanded across the whole country.

Maureen, who has learning and physical disabilities, has a new home in Wimborne, where she is visited three times a day by support workers.

She says the best thing about living on her own is “having no-one to argue with” and adds that she is “having more fun than ever.”

The website DotComUnity. co.uk was started by Dorset-based businessman Steve Piper, managing director of the Care Division, and Mike Eley of web designers Bizgen.

Their idea was to provide a complete directory of community services, care and social information, which can be accessed by people with learning disabilities, their family, friends and care workers. The two men developed the not-for-profit project in response to a national change in policy, which is already seeing people with learning disabilities being moved out of residential care and into homes of their own.

Mr Piper, whose company provides carers, explained: “Recent government reforms mean that for the very first time, many people will be given control of their own care and personal budgets, and will be able to decide where and what they are spent on.

“Local authorities and provider organisations will no longer be making their day-to-day decisions.

“We created DotComUnity in order to tell those with learning disabilities about specialist local services, which are often difficult to locate.”

He added: “We also wanted to provide a forum where feedback can be shared about those local services.

“Those providers that aren’t doing an adequate job will be able to respond and make changes if our reviewers have a bad experience, and those that are exceeding expectations will be recognised.”

The website contains information on support services, employment law, health care, housing, financial matters, events and regularly updated news. Events from bingo and the theatre to disabled dating and holidays are included, along with a directory of support workers and their interests.

DotComUnity is helping Maureen to stay independent but not isolated. She has so far used the website to find out about local theatre, hairdressers, holidays, a church group that she now attends every week, and a bingo event. She also keeps in touch online with old friends in Poole.

Maureen’s move was made possible by the shift in government policy, which aims to make individual care a reality for disabled people and those with complex learning difficulties.

Having come from a facility where care was available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Maureen likes the fact that she now has more choice about what she does, and uses the website to help her decide.

DotComUnity is the first website of its kind in the country, and is due to be rolled out across the UK during this year, but Dorset and Hampshire were the first counties to go live.

• An open day to mark the official launch of DotComUnity. co.uk in Dorset will be held at Lighthouse in Poole at 11am-2pm on July 7. The event is open to anyone associated with learning and physical disabilities and includes yoga sessions, a sensory area, a theatre workshop as well as music therapy.