Landon's story

'Thanks to respite care me and my dad are still really close'. 

Hi, my name is Landon. I’m 19 now, but have had experience of being in care since I was about six-years-old.

I’ve never been in care for a long period of time. I’ve been in and out of respite care, and had a couple of short-term placements.

Respite care is when someone helps your family out for a weekend here and there, and sometimes some weeks over the school holidays.

Basically, if your mum or dad is having a hard time coping, for whatever reason, respite care is a good way of giving them a break without taking you away from your family permanently.

I know that a lot of people who read this magazine have quite a hard time being in care, but I’ve got to say that respite was amazing for me and my family. I honestly think it saved us.

Without a trace

My mum left my dad when I was really little. We still don’t know where she is. She may have just run off, or something much worse might have happened. No-one’s heard from her in 17 years. She was originally from St Kitts, which is an island in the Caribbean, and some people think she went back there. The thing is, no one has been able to track her down.

Because of this, my dad got in a really bad way. He is sure that she’s been killed, or that she killed herself. But as there was no letter, and there has never been any trace of her, he’s found it really hard to move on.

In the early years, he had real trouble with his mental health. Even he says that losing mum 'drove him mad'.

Hard times

My aunties helped him out as much as they could, but they had their own families and they didn’t live close by, so it wasn’t always easy. My dad never stopped loving me, in fact, I always felt total love from him. Thing is, he was finding it hard to look after himself, let alone a small boy.

That’s when social services became involved. I’m not even sure how they found out, but we got a visit from them. It was so long ago, and I was so young, that it’s difficult to remember the details.

All I know is what other people have told me. According to the stories, my dad was really scared that he would lose me as well as having just lost his wife. Social services could see what was happening and reassured him that they would do as much as possible to help us all stay together.

Looking back on it now, I can’t thank them enough for all the help and support they gave us.

Brother and sister

My dad still has problems, but they’re nothing like they used to be. He’s met a new lady who is really nice. She has got a couple of kids of her own and I treat them as though they are my own brother and sister.

It would have been so easy to put me into foster care or into a children’s home, but that would have torn our family apart and it would have ruined my dad’s life.

Thanks to respite care, and the amazing families that helped us out over the years, me and my dad are still really close.