Trish Pain, manager of Pact Balclutha, was thrown a massive lunch party by staff and clients at Crown St Link Centre on Tuesday, July 1.
Pact supports people with disabilities, mental illness and addiction challenges, and has about 20 staff and 70 clients in the Clutha area.
With a background in nursing and caring for a family member, Mrs Pain has been helping Pact and Link’s development right from the start.
"Keith Ellen, the Pact manager at the time, said, ‘I’m opening a service in Balclutha, I want you’ ... That’s how it all came about," she said.
"We started with just supported accommodation for a five-bedroom home ... then the Link started ... moved to the [Clutha] Country Music Club and then got too big and we moved down here where we’ve probably been going about 20 years.
"We were told in the beginning that you couldn’t put clients with different needs all together. We’re proof you can ... they all look out for each other, it’s quite lovely really."
She said from the management to the community of clients, team support made Link Centre — and her job — a rewarding success.
"Just in the last weeks we’ve had a young person living on her own that’s been mentally unwell, Trish was worried about her, took her into our supported accommodation for the weekend, talked to all of the teams and got a plan in place," Pact regional manager Karla Butler said.
"Trish is an amazing advocate for our people, they all love her."
Mrs Pain was delighted by the celebration in her honour.
She said the Link and Pact organisation was focused on more funding and community offers, for clients to have "a greater variety of opportunities, more often".
