A mother says her severely disabled daughter who was used as the face of a care company on its VANS has now been evicted from one of its homes.
Distraught Clare Wright, 56, says Sammy, 29, was 18 when she got her tenancy with Aster Living.
Aster provides social housing and care packages to help people live as independently as possible.
Mother-of-three Clare said the move was a huge relief as her daughter was provided with her own space and a 24/7 care package.
Sammy then became the “face” of Aster Living on a number of its vans which bore her picture as well as a quote from her mum:
It said: “Aster Living provided peace of mind for me and a home from home for her.”
Clare says Sammy enjoyed eight years of stability – but it all changed when Sammy was hospitalised with a life-threatening abscess in her lung in November last year.
Her mother and step father Craig McConnell, 59, endured a ”rollercoaster” four weeks as she battled the condition in the Royal University Hospital in Bath.
Finally, as medical staff prepared to discharge her, the family were dealt a ”bombshell”.
Clare says she was told by Aster that her daughter’s needs had changed and they could no longer meet them.
She says Sammy had to move out of her Aster Living home in From in Somerset and now lives in Russett House in Yeovil where she is provided with full-time care.
Clare said: ””I just want to know why. I don’t understand why it had to happen that way. We were devastated.
“Aster had said it couldn’t provide the care because she was fed using a peg which enters the stomach directly.
”But she’s had a peg for water and medicines since she was twelve and any extra training would have been straightforward.
“While she was living there she had a wonderful relationship with her carers and despite needing a lot of support she had a lot of independence.”
Clare says her daughter is at last happy and settled again, but she is still angry about how Aster handled the situation,
She claims “all her belongings were put into bin bags” before Christmas.
Aster said the decision was made by Somerset County Council social services to terminate the tenancy.
A spokesman for Somerset County Council said: “We cannot talk about individual circumstances but will always ensure that a person’s needs are assessed and met in an appropriate way.
“Should those needs change during a stay in hospital and an existing provider cannot meet those new needs, our role will be to work with the family to make alternative arrangements that can meet those needs and, where possible, their preferences.
“Any move can be difficult and we do our best to work with the person in care, their families and friends to make the process as smooth as possible.
“Anyone who has concerns about the support they have received from our social care services is encouraged to let us know and we will do our best to put things right.”
