Sussex Oakleaf is a social enterprise (an Industrial and Provident Society with Charitable status) that delivers services across Sussex to people who have mental health and/or substance misuse needs, young people and people at risk of homelessness. Sussex Oakleaf first began providing services in 1995 and, since then, has developed the provision of a wide range of community and housing related services and training to others. The organisation empowers people and promotes independence by providing recovery-focused supported housing, community wellbeing services, social inclusion, independent living, residential care, care brokerage, peer support, personal assistants, learning and development, information, advice and guidance. We work in partnership with the people who use our services to provide personalised support.
Sussex Oakleaf provides high quality accommodation-based services including 4 high support residential care homes and 8 supported housing schemes. Our services can support people to move on from residential care or hospital into more independent living situations and ideally to living independently in the community. We also provide support packages to people living in their own homes. Our staff teams are skilled and experienced in successfully enabling people to move on to lower support services.
Our philosophy of care and support is based on the Sussex Oakleaf Recovery Statement and we respect service users’ wishes, choices and their entitlement to take risks.
We provide tailored and comprehensive packages of support which meet peoples’ needs, responds to their aspirations and choices as they change over time. People have access to help when they need it, to enable them to take control of their lives. This support enables people to live more independently, develop the skills and confidence to increase their independence and social inclusion across a range of social and vocational activities.
There is a strong emphasis on effective, goal-oriented, rehabilitation with a focus on recovery, well-being and holistic care. The structured, planned and regularly reviewed support package develops people’s skills and also prevents challenges developing into crises. Part of this support is encouraging service users to tap into their own resourcefulness, and share their abilities and skills with others. The support helps people to access specific, focused therapies and specialist support, e.g. occupational therapy, substance misuse support.
The type of support provided varies depending on the needs of the individual, and may include: daily living skills, health self-management, emotional coping strategies, linking into learning and work opportunities, untangling benefit problems, managing money, maintaining a tenancy, cooking and healthy eating, and accessing specialist support such as talking therapies or drug counselling.
We encourage and support our service users to make links into the community and build healthy relationships with neighbours, community organisations, the police, colleges and community centres, etc. This helps create true independence, social inclusion and citizenship.
To compliment our accommodation-based services, we also provide a range of Floating Support, Mental Health Outreach and Domiciliary Care services.
Two thirds of all British press and TV coverage on mental health includes an association with violence. (Health Education Authority 1998) 44% of respondents to a study by the Mental Health Foundation in 2000 reported stigma and discrimination from GPs. Sandamas and Hogman, 2000, found that black people are twice as likely to be involuntarily detained under the Mental Health Act than white people.
