“It was by pure accident that I ended up here, but I couldn’t be happier”
When Afonso When Nuala Deans left the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA), she thought she knew where her future was heading. After studying Community Drama and Applied Theatre at LIPA, she returned home to Limavady in Northern Ireland with ambitions of using drama as a tool to support children with disabilities and autism. She imagined a career where creativity could help people build confidence, develop skills and experience the world differently. However, when she came home, funding for this kind of work was limited, making it difficult to turn that vision into a career at the time. Social care wasn’t necessarily part of her plan.
Instead, she joined a research company and built a successful career, eventually becoming Director of Contracts. The role took her around the world working with international clients. Then life changed for Nuala; the pandemic arrived, she became a mum and the constant travel that had once been exciting no longer fitted around family life. Looking for a new direction, she started thinking again about work that involved helping people.
A change of course
Nuala joined Connected Health as a domiciliary care worker, quickly discovering the career she had been looking for all along. Long before she became a social care practitioner, caring was already part of Nuala’s life. As a teenager, she helped care for her grandmother, who had severe diabetes and underwent leg amputations. The experience gave her an understanding of the practical and emotional challenges people can face when they need support.
What surprised Nuala was the difference social care practitioners make by simply being there. She says, “You kind of realise that you might be the only person that person sees that day. You develop love and compassion for every client that you meet. It becomes so much more than a job. It brings you back to human nature and the importance of making someone feel cared for, safe and valued.” The work could be demanding, but what stayed with Nuala was the relationships, the trust and the small moments that could make a difference to someone’s day.
The day that everything changed
Nuala knew early that social care was for her. She distinctly remembers visiting a person she supported one morning. The woman had become seriously ill overnight while alone at home. Nuala and her colleague were the first people to find her.
“We rang the ambulance, stayed with her and made sure she was okay. You could see the tears in her eyes when she realised help was on the way,” Nuala explains. It remains one of the most emotional experiences of her career. “As traumatic as that day was, that was the moment that made me realise the job is incredible. If those carers hadn’t been there, who knows what would have happened? That’s when I knew I loved this job, because you truly are making a difference in your own community.”
Helping people achieve more
Nuala progressed quickly, moving from domiciliary care into management before taking an opportunity within supported living. Today, as Deputy Manager with Live Connected, part of Connected Health, she supports people with complex needs, autism, learning disabilities and mental health challenges to live independently in their communities.
Some of Nuala’s most rewarding experiences have come from supporting people who had spent years in hospital settings move to more independent living. Watching individuals successfully settle into their own homes transformed her understanding of what good support can achieve. As Nuala says, “Seeing those clients transition into the community, how much their lives have progressed and how much they’ve experienced in life is unbelievable. It shows what can happen when you have the right team, dedication, and goals. People who have been written off can achieve so much more than others expect.”
Nuala speaks passionately about helping people experience things that many of us take for granted, like a client who can now spend time with family in ways that previously felt impossible. Nuala recollects, “They order takeaways, watch movies together, and spend time as a family. They’ve got that sense of togetherness back. It’s examples like that that make every day worth it.”
Nuala is quick to point out that none of these outcomes happen alone. “It physically doesn’t work unless everyone works together: social workers, behavioural support teams, speech and language therapists, carers and families. When everyone is working towards the same goal, that’s when people achieve things they never thought were possible,” Nuala explains. That collaborative approach reflects the values that have shaped Nuala’s own career.
Nuala’s advice to anyone considering social care – ‘Just do it’
Nuala understands why some people hesitate before considering a career in social care. She had no formal background in the profession herself, and yet her advice is simple: “Just do it. Throw yourself into it. Learn as much as you can and enjoy every second. The people, the clients, and the professionals you meet teach you so much. You take something away from every story you hear.”
Nuala’s route into social care was simply a different path to the one she imagined. The goal that drove her as a student, to help people build fuller, richer lives, never really changed. Nuala just found a different way to do it. As she reflects on the career she almost never pursued, she returns to a piece of advice her father still gives her today. “You only get out of it what you put into it. If you give it your all, it’ll give the same back.”
For Nuala, social care has done exactly that.
Take a deeper dive…You can hear more from Nuala and her work at Connected Health by watching the video below.
Feeling inspired?
Working together to change people’s lives… Make a difference by embarking on your journey into social care. For more information on how you can start your journey check out our Interested in becoming a social care practitioner? page or read more social care stories here.