Connected Health announces 50 Northern Ireland jobs as Carl Frampton launches supported living service

Connected Health has announced the creation of 50 new jobs in Northern Ireland as it launches a new supported living service across the region.

The leading homecare provider’s new Live Connected service will allow people with varying levels of learning disability and mental health to be cared for in the comfort of their own homes and within their own communities.

The service is initially available in the Larne, Magherafelt, Londonderry and Limavady areas and will be delivered by 50 new support workers which are currently being recruited.

Launching the new service, Northern Ireland professional boxing legend, Carl Frampton, said: “I’m privileged to be associated with the launch of this new service by Connected Health.

“In boxing, just like in all walks of life, it is important to have a strong support network to achieve goals. A service like Live Connected promotes independence, facilitates choice, and supports the individual to achieve daily goals while allowing them to live life to the fullest in their own familiar environment.

“Connected Health also provides great employment opportunities within local communities across Northern Ireland, with high levels of support for its teams to deliver vital services in their local areas.”

The former WBA and IBF super-bantamweight and WBA featherweight world title holder recently presented Connected Health’s Learning and Development centre, Connected Academy, with the OCN ‘Provider of the Year’ award.

Connected Health’s Live Connected operations manager, Shauna Doyle, explained: “Everyone, regardless of diagnosis, should be able to live in their local communities and avail of the same opportunities as you or I would. That is exactly what Live Connected does, as we recognise individuals' ability and not their disability.

“The new Live Connected service makes a real difference to people’s lives — both to the individuals being supported, and their families.

“The service provides support to individuals with their general daily living, as well as with their own personal goals.

“Connected Health is celebrating 10 years of delivering homecare in 2023 and branching out to provide this new service is a celebration of our teams’ dedication to delivering high-quality care.”

Ms Doyle explained how Live Connected is helping clients to achieve their personal objectives: “The goal of one of our service users, who has spent their life in a hospital environment, is to have their own Christmas tree, as they’ve never had one of their own — and we're able to make that happen.

“Another client’s dream is to have their own property which they don’t have to share with someone they do not know. We’ve been able to support this individual to source and secure a suitable property and, by working in partnership with the local HSC trust, we have identified the correct supports to enable this individual to continue building on their independence.”

She said the new support worker recruits will be provided with full training to help maximise job satisfaction in the delivery of care to the highest standards: “Being a support worker is the most rewarding job you can have, as it truly makes a difference to people’s lives — there is no greater satisfaction. To achieve that, support workers need to have the right skills, knowledge and support from a company which truly values them — that's exactly what we offer here with the Live Connected service.

“To build our teams, we’ve simply connected the right people to make a fantastic service and we couldn’t be more thrilled about the true difference this will make to so many people.”