What person-centred support actually looks like

“Person-centred” is a phrase you’ll see on a lot of care websites. At Kintota it isn’t a slogan — it’s the answer to the question we ask before anything else: what does this person actually need, and what do they want their life in Plymouth to look like?

The easiest way to explain it is to tell you what it’s looked like for real people we’ve supported.

What did that look like for LW?

We began supporting LW. It was meant to be temporary — a bridge while a longer-term care provider was found.

LW lives with different types of epilepsy, which can look, from the outside, like a mental health episode. He’s a kind and gentle person who didn’t have the easiest childhood. Like a lot of the people we support, LW had been discharged from hospital and placed in temporary accommodation.

So we got to work. Every week, we placed bids on properties for him through Devon Home Choice. His social worker was impressed enough by his progress that she made his package with Kintota permanent — he no longer needed the domiciliary care that had brought him to us in the first place.

There were harder chapters too. A bout of seizures led to what looked like psychotic episodes, and a short stay in a psychiatric unit followed. But not long after, LW was offered his own flat — the first property he had ever had that was truly his own.

Kintota staff worked around the clock to get it ready. We sent in a team of volunteers to decorate before he moved in, and sourced furniture and soft furnishings so the flat was ready to live in, not just ready to view. Since he moved in, we’ve helped him manage his budgeting so his bills and utilities stay organised and paid. He’s told us he’s happier than ever.

What happens when things go wrong, not just when they go right?

RT had lived in her property for a long time when a flood forced her into temporary accommodation, through no fault of her own. We made sure she had somewhere to go — and because we understood how much her cats meant to her, we made sure they were rehoused too.

The practical side of a flood is relentless: insurance calls, conversations with her housing association, clearing out ruined belongings, ripping up carpet the water had destroyed, arranging a deep clean before she could think about going home. We did all of it alongside her, keeping things on track through the disruption.

At one particularly difficult point, RT had a mental health crisis. Our team went out of hours that same day to bring her home safely. In the months that followed, we organised food parcels, helped her get the dental treatment she needed, and stood by her through hospital appointments.

RT has historically found it hard to engage with support. What made the difference, in the end, was matching her with the right staff — people she could actually build trust with. She’s become a real example of what that matching can do.

What does independence look like, in practice?

Sometimes person-centred support isn’t a crisis at all — it’s a shopping trip.

One client got in touch with us in September, and was matched with Deborah. “The first meeting we both had was like I had known Deb all my life,” they told us, “not so strange, as Deb has a magnetic personality.” What followed wasn’t just help with the shopping — it was a plan to need less help over time. The first trip out, Deborah went along. The second time, they went alone.

“I have now completed two shopping adventures — the first one with assistance but yesterday I flew solo at Sainsbury’s!! That is from the confidence factor Deb installed in me. She did say I can come back at any time I need to.”

— a Kintota client

That’s the whole model in one sentence: support that’s there when you need it, and steps back the moment you don’t.

Does support stop being personal once it’s practical?

Not everything we do is a case study. Some of it is a tradition. Every Christmas Eve, Kintota delivers full Christmas dinners — turkey, stuffing, sprouts, red cabbage, roast potatoes, the lot — to clients in their own homes. It isn’t a one-off gesture; it’s something the team plans for and looks forward to every year, because a good Christmas dinner matters just as much as a good care plan does.

It’s the same instinct that sits behind LW’s flat and RT’s flood recovery: the details count, and so does showing up.

What do clients and families say?

“Without Donna I wouldn’t be here today. No one else cared about my well-being and she did. I am forever grateful for everything she has done for me.”

— PM, a Kintota client, about Donna

“Someone needs to give Justin a medal, he is just amazing. It’s like he has an inbuilt tracker to find PMc and scoop him up safely. He definitely goes above and beyond.”

— PMc’s niece, about Justin

What happens next?

If any of this sounds like the kind of support you or someone you know is looking for, the best next step is a conversation. Have a look at our client journey to see how support with Kintota actually starts, from that first phone call through to your first visits.