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LinkLiving Service Users' response to reductions in the Supporting People Funding Programme.
The film focuses on how support can make a great deal of difference towards helping people to live a more independent and fulfilling life.Reducing funding for support can have serious consequences for many people who are vulnerable.
LinkLiving service users and the involvement worker approached the Edinburgh College of Art, who agreed to help film and edit the project.
Watch Lives behind labels movie
Read a transcript of this movie
Male Narrator:
We don't have dramatic pictures of mass suffering,
We don't have an army of celebrities to persuade you to part with your money,
We don't have a chart-topping ballad to move your emotions.
What we do have is a track record of helping people to claim back their independence, pride, quality of life.
Male Narrator:
People like Christopher.
For half of Christopher's life he has been in and out of hospital, his mental health issues condemning him to a life void of choice and opportunity, told what to do, when to do it and even how to do it.
Days were long, lacked meaning, overriding feelings of anxiousness and agitation as his life waited in limbo, just forever waiting.
Male Narrator:
People like Elaine, whose confidence and self-esteem took a daily beating through the verbal abuse and antisocial behaviour of her neighbours.
She felt too terrified to leave the house.
She felt inadequate to look after her young family.
She began to distance herself from her boys.
Life started to be impossible.
Male Narrator:
And people like 20-year-old Paul
It can be so easy to forget about people like Paul.
Left school at 16. Out of employment as often as he is in employment.
No family member available to guide and encourage.
Shifted from place to place and not staying in one place long enough to make friends. The only people taking an interest are those selling you drugs.
Depression, isolation, addiction. A combination that normally ends in one of two ways - jail or death.
Male Narrator:
My story is no different from Paul, Elaine or Christopher's.
Before seeking support I lacked the basic skills to look after myself - to be able to cook for myself, plan and control my finances, even make myself presentable.
Changes that I can now make for myself, but which wouldn't have been possible without that initial helping hand provided by Link.
Everyone you see here has been given that same opportunity and made their own significant steps.
Background noise:
(everyone talking and laughing)
Male Narrator:
Christopher has not been back to hospital in the last four years.
He has freedom of choice.
He now chooses when to eat, what to eat, and who to eat with.
His world is now one long exploration into the arts, culture and sport.
Last year Chris was able to enjoy his first holiday supported by his worker, an opportunity now denied to him due to funding cuts.
Male Narrator:
Elaine has regained her family and life, after being so close to losing both.
The bravest step she took was when she called for help.
The vibrant individual you see before you is a result of the work that support at home can do.
Her children now benefit from having a role model to aspire to.
Male Narrator:
Paul is taking the first steps to making his dreams a reality.
They are not fanciful pie-in-the-sky dreams, just normal aspirations that you and I have of a house that can be called home, a loving, caring partner and kids to share it with.
Through the support given to Paul he now feels more comfortable speaking about his feelings and, just as importantly, he now has the motivation to succeed.
Male Narrator:
And me? My studies as an actor allow me to stand in front of a camera and share our stories.
Stories which could have had an unnecessary tragic end, and a cost to the country financially and morally.