It was hard for Christine Noble to encourage her teenagers to leave home. Here, she and Annette Hames explain how a parenting service improved her family life

Since the death of her husband in December 2001, Christine Noble, who has a borderline learning disability, has been provided with support in the home. Christine’s support team is small, roles are clear, communication is good and there are regular meetings. Although two of her children now live independently, she says she has made the best decisions for her family and that she has been well supported by social services and her advocate.

Christine has written an article where she described how she supported her family (Hames and Noble 2009). She wanted to describe her experiences further because she said they would help other families, providers and services. She dictated her story to the second author. Names have been changed.