Juliana's story
Juliana and her husband look after their three year old son Joshua. Joshua was born with a rare chromosome deficiency called 22q 11.2 Deletion Syndrome. This affects Joshua’s ability to learn new skills which other children would normally develop naturally.
Juliana spends time teaching Joshua about his surroundings and also uses a form of sign language to help communicate things to him in a visual way.
Joshua, who was born with a submucous cleft pallet, also has other complications due to his condition. These include a weakened immune system causing respiratory and ear infections which take a long time to recover from, a heart problem which may lead to surgery in the future and an underactive thyroid.
Juliana had heard about Caring with Confidence sessions through her local Carers Centre in Sunderland who encouraged her to come along. She said: “I always thought as parents we didn’t really deserve any help because Joshua is our son and we just got on with looking after him.
“Caring with Confidence has helped me realise that being a carer is a full time job in itself and made me aware of what help and support is available to us. It’s completely changed my perception of what we as carers do.”