Fighting for What’s Right | NorCA Stars

Sometimes, being a care provider means more than offering support – it means being a voice. It means fighting battles on behalf of someone who cannot fight for themselves, even when the odds feel overwhelming.

We are honoured to name Beverley and the entire team at Liaise as our NorCA Stars, for a story of advocacy, determination, and love that quite literally saved someone’s life.

When Beverley and her team began supporting a particular individual, they inherited a situation that simply wasn’t right. For nearly two years, they had been kept in their bedroom. Professional external services had assessed them and concluded they were “too distressed or too agitated” to manage a hoist or a sling. Too agitated to sit in a wheelchair, so they stayed in their room.

But the team at Liaise looked at the individual and saw someone who deserved more.

“The managers and the teams just met it head on. They had meetings after meetings after meetings and said, ‘You need to come out and reassess this person. You’ve not assessed them in a year and a half.”

They persisted, and finally, the service user was reassessed. The result? They now have a hoist, a sling, and a wheelchair. And they go out often.

The Hospital Fight

But the story doesn’t end there. Recently, the client became seriously ill and was admitted to hospital. While there, the hospital team began administering lorazepam regularly to manage his agitation. The effect was devastating, the medication sedated the client, making them unable to sit up, unable to cough and clear their chest.

But the team from Liaise didn’t leave. They were there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and they began speaking up again.

The manager was in constant contact with the hospital, liaising, advocating, refusing to be silent. Then came the moment no one was prepared for – the hospital placed the client on end-of-life care and they told the team they had perhaps a week to live.

It would have been so easy to give in to despair and accept what the professionals were saying. But the Liaise team didn’t accept it.

“They fought courageously. They fought for this person.”

And the client began to improve and against all expectations and the medical verdict, they began to come back to them. The service user was discharged and came home.

A Home Transformed

While the team fought for the clients life at the hospital, something else remarkable was happening back at home. In that same month, while they sat by the client’s bedside and advocated with the nursing staff, others from Liaise were completely renovating the client’s bedroom.

They returned not just to the home they had left, but to an environment that had been redesigned – person-centred in every detail. A space that reflected who they are and what they need.

“It was something we’d been wanting to do for a while but were unable to. I am so pleased and so proud of the team.”

Our NorCA Stars

This story is a monumental one. It is a story about seeing the person behind the behaviour. About refusing to accept “too distressed” as a permanent state. About standing at a hospital bedside and challenging nurses and doctors because you know the person in that bed, and you know what they’re capable of.

For their courage, their persistence, and their unwavering belief in the person they support, we are beyond proud to name Beverley and the entire Liaise team as NorCA Stars.

Do you have a Star on your team?

Stories like this remind us why we do what we do. If you have a colleague, a team, or a moment of joy you’d like to share, please don’t keep it to yourself. Send us the highlights and let us help you shine a light on the extraordinary work happening across Norfolk and Waveney.