But despite being able to offer such life-enhancing roles, one Borders organisation constantly finds it difficult to attract the right calibre of people to fill these vital posts.
The body in question is the Brothers of Charity, a worldwide organisation with a presence in 24 countries across five continents.
First established by Canon Triest in Ghent, Belgium, in 1807, the 'Brothers' first came to Scotland in 1945 to meet the growing need for the provision of services for people with a learning disability.
In the Borders, the prime site for this work was long focused on the organisation's property in Gattonside, but today, it also provides a range of services right across the region from premises in Galashiels, Selkirk, Kelso and Earlston, as well as its original base.
That includes everything from day services and care home provision to the supported living delivered through its 'Together Borders' initiative.
The Brothers of Charity, which became a limited company last year, is funded through contracts with local authorities; in this region by Scottish Borders Council.
It recently held its latest recruitment open day in Selkirk where people got the chance to find out exactly what is actually involved in working in the supported-living field and to meet some of the 90 Borderers who depend on the organisation to help them attain a quality of living that would otherwise be difficult to achieve.
Support staff can come from a variety of backgrounds, and previous work and life experiences, as well as being aged anywhere from 18 to their early 60s.
But as Elaine McKie, manager of Together Borders, explained to TheSouthern this week, the organisation has, ironically, generated some negative publicity for itself by being so demanding when it comes to making sure it is hiring the right quality of staff.
"We provide a range of packages for the people we work with – our service users – and we support people in those tenancies to live as fulfilling a life as possible," she said.
"The degree of help they get varies tremendously according to where they are on the support spectrum. We have people who are working, holding down a part-time job, living in their own tenancy and are going through the activities of daily living and having a good quality of life.
"That's at the lower end of the spectrum and they will have a few hours' assistance from us each week."
It might be helping service users keep on top of issues such as paying bills, including the Council Tax, and understanding the hundreds of pieces of paper that come though their doors – the difference between those they need to worry about and those they don't.
"At the other end, we have packages of support for individuals who live in their own tenancies but who require a team of people 24 hours a day, seven days a week," added Elaine.
"Such people may well have profound and complex needs, requiring help with personal care – the whole package.
"However, we have had some problems getting people to understand what a learning difficulty is, what it means for the individual with that difficulty, for their families and how we can support them.
"What people don't understand is the range. People often have physical difficulties along with learning disabilities. Many may have epilepsy, or diabetes, heart problems – which all come with the initial disability. That needs managing if they are to have a good quality of life.
"Our problem is that supporting such people as one of our support workers is not a job for everybody – it requires infinite patience and a certain value set.
"It is therefore very important that we employ people that can help that be achieved."
As well as the more traditional assessments when it comes to hiring trainee support workers, much of whether someone is deemed suitable rests with the service users themselves.
"We must try to get a good match between an individual service user and the skills, personality and other attributes of the support worker," explained Elaine.
"If you were going to be receiving personal care, if someone was going to be, say, showering you every day, you would want to feel comfortable with that individual and with the way they approach you and with the respect they treat you with.
"But it is exactly this commitment to ensuring that match-ups between support workers and service users is perfect that can lead to vacancies being readvertised – something that can cause negative connotations.
"If we end up advertising too often, people tend to wonder why we have problems finding or retaining staff. But it is because we are so scrupulous about getting the best fit between our staff and service users that makes our attrition rate at the high end.
"We have a wonderful training department, and people can work up to gaining SVCQ and HNC qualifications, become team leaders, support managers and service managers – but if the initial relationship between the person giving the care and the person receiving it is not right, then we're not even at first base.
"We need to keep striving to raise awareness about the value of supported living and getting people to think about it as a rewarding and valuable career choice."
Among the latest intake of training support workers are Karen Anderson and Margaret Wilson.
Karen has been with the Brothers of Charity for just five weeks, while Margaret has been employed since January.
Both are very clear on why they wanted to work for the organisation.
"It is getting a chance to start afresh in a career with a new set of challenges," said Karen, whose last job was in a fish factory.
"I always wanted to do care work and was actively seeking a post in the care field when I saw the advert for the Brothers of Charity and decided to go for it.
"There is so much more to it than I first thought, but I am really enjoying it. You are getting the chance to make a real difference to someone's life – to get up in the morning with a huge sense of job satisfaction and the feeling of being truly proud of what you do."
Margaret agreed: "I wanted to change jobs and had previously worked with children with behavioural problems.
"I knew a couple of people who worked for the company (the Brothers of Charity) and when they announced they were recruiting, I applied.
"It is far from being just a job. I am looking at it as a job for life, a real career and want to progress as far as I can with it.
"You never know what each day is going to bring."
Support manager Christine Wilkinson has been with the Brothers of Charity since 1993, after switching careers in her 40s after working for the health service.
"We supply a high quality of service, so we cannot just take anyone. Our support workers must have a sound value base," said Christine. "People don't realise how much there is in supporting people with emotional problems or learning difficulties. You are involved with every aspect of someone's life. We are trying to give people a choice, to give them a voice, and that's a fantastic thing to be do for someone."