Katie's story

The following was written by Katie's mum.

Katie enjoyed school, especially her work experience placement in a café. Katie was keen to focus her education on catering so left her school after year 12 and moved to a specialist college to complete a catering course. Because Katie lives in a rural area, her education needs couldn't be met near to where she lived, so Katie chose to live in at college during term time.

Katie has completed two years of her college course and is about to begin year 3, which will be a supported internship. Katie plans to move to a supported living home once she finishes college with three of her friends from college. The café where Katie will complete her supported internship is in the same town as Katie’s new home, and she will be supported to learn to use public transport to get herself to and from work.

We met with Katie’s Preparing for Adulthood worker before Katie was 18 to talk about her future and how things change once she is 18 years old. This was a very daunting experience for me as I was used to Katie being at home and being responsible for making decisions about her education and care. Katie’s Preparing for Adulthood social worker gave me lots of information about choices Katie will have in the future, and her legal rights as an adult. I was able to go and visit Katie’s college and was put in touch with other parents in similar circumstances, which really helped.