Sussex Oakleaf offers integrated Supported Housing, Registered Care Homes, Floating Support Services, and Day Services for people with mental health problems and other vulnerable people needing housing support.
Our accommodation-based services for people with mental health needs include 5 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. Our staff teams are skilled and experienced in successfully enabling people to move on to lower support services. We can also provide long term care and support to people who need this type of placement.
To compliment our accommodation-based services, we provide a range of Floating Support, Mental Health Outreach, Domiciliary Care and Day Services. We can also provide individually designed packages of support for people with high/complex needs living in the community and moving out of hospital or residential care.
Registered Care
Supported Housing
Our approach to service delivery
Recovery
Case Studies
Feedback from care coordinators
Views from service users about their home
Registered Care
Introduction
Sussex Oakleaf operates five registered care homes in West Sussex; in Haywards Heath, Worthing, Bognor Regis and two in Burgess Hill. They range in size from 4 to 10 beds, have a non-institutional atmosphere and décor, and have en-suite facilities, gardens and are close to community facilities.
Our principle of support is based on recovery, choice, empowerment and social inclusion, which supports individuals to develop their own individual support plan based on their own needs and aspirations.
Description of the services
Sussex Oakleaf’s residential care homes provide 24 hour rehab and recovery focused care and support for people needing a high level of support with complex needs mental health problems. Residents commonly have dual or multiple diagnoses (e.g. learning disability, sensory impairment, physical disability, substance misuse), challenging behaviour, elderly care needs and may have a forensic background.
We offer both long-term placements and short term structured rehab and recovery support for people wanting to move into a supported housing placement within 12 to 24 months. We support positive risk taking for everyone and see it as an essential part of learning and recovery.
We can also provide packages of care for anyone with more specialized support needs such as personal care, sensory impairment, mobility restrictions, etc.
We aim to provide people with a warm, relaxed, supportive and homely environment, within which they feel safe and valued. Our approach to key working is to enable people to develop the confidence, skills, and choices to enable them to work with the staff towards becoming as self- managing and independent as possible, to promote fulfillment and an enhanced quality of life. The nature of the support is very much community based, with an emphasis on peer support and service user involvement.
The high ratio of staff to residents allows us to provide individually tailored 1:1 care and support which may include:
- Personal escort for activities/appointments, attending day services/college, etc
- Care and support for mobility difficulties, sensory impairments, physical health
- Personal care and hygiene, washing, dressing, eating, incontinence support
- 1:1 coaching and support for independent living skills, self catering, managing medication
- 1:1 24hr observation during crises and short term acute mental health episodes (to avoid hospital admissions and sections)
Who could benefit from this service
People aged 18 years old and over with a Mental Health diagnosis and who are need of 24 hour support.
This would include people with dual diagnoses, high complex support needs, challenging behaviour and forensic backgrounds.
Our residential care homes are for people who could benefit from a short term rehabilitation placement before moving on to supported housing, as well as people with continuing care needs.
Supported Housing
Introduction
Sussex Oakleaf has eight supported housing schemes across West Sussex in Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill and East Grinstead. They include a mixture of shared homes and self contained flats with gardens, communal space, and are close to community facilities.
Description of the services
The level of support can vary from a few hours a week of housing-related support, to tailored high support package including mental health support and care. A flexible and comprehensive package of support will be designed by the individual, based on their needs and wishes. This can be short, medium or longer term, and is compatible with individual budgets.
The support we provide varies from person to person, but can include:
- Advice and guidance with form-filling, claiming benefits and grants
- Maintaining a tenancy
- Liaison with other support, training or employment agencies
- Support with budgeting and daily living skills
- Access to other specialist services, e.g. occupational therapy, substance misuse support and talking therapies
- Access to social activities
- Links to Day Services and mainstream facilities
- Help with moving on to living independently and finding work/training
The support is recovery-focused to maximise people’s control and empowerment in their lives, and to encourage the involvement of service users in the running of their service and the organisation.
Who could benefit from this service
People aged 18 years old and over with a Mental Health diagnosis needing support to help them acquire and maintain accommodation. Our supported housing schemes can be supplemented with an individually tailored package of additional support, for people with higher or more complex support needs. This additional support can be short, medium or long term, and vary over time.
We can also provide this type of support package to people living in other kinds of accommodation, e.g. own home, privately rented, another housing association or provider’s property.
Our approach to delivering 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.
Our skilled and committed staff work 1:1 with people to support them to identify their wishes and draw up a goal-orientated individual support plan to develop the necessary skills and confidence to live more independently. We place a strong emphasis on rehabilitation, recovery and well-being. 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. Wherever possible the support plan will include move-on to more independent accommodation, and towards a reduction or ending of specialist support.
We work in partnership with multi disciplinary Community Mental Health Teams, Social Services, GPs, family/carers, advocates and other appropriate professionals to ensure the person we are supporting is taking the lead in designing and reviewing their package of support. This approach to developing individually tailored packages of mental health and housing support helps prevent placements breaking down, crises and hospital admissions. Before someone moves out of hospital, residential care or another placement into a Sussex Oakleaf placement, we can start working with them, in partnership with ward staff and other providers, to help build relationships and prepare for a smooth transition.
Our local knowledge of mainstream and specialist services in the community enable us to signpost people on to activities, resources and other sources of support and information, where necessary. 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.
Sussex Oakleaf is committed to the principles of recovery-based service delivery. This means we believe that everyone has the ability to learn or regain the ability to be in charge of their own life. We understand recovery to be a person’s individual journey to a life that has personal meaning and fulfillment for them, and includes living well in the presence or absence of symptoms or other difficulties.
Staff receive training and supervision to ensure their practice embodies recovery-based values, and that we retain the hope and belief that the people we support are able to live their lives as they wish, and recover control. This approach enables people to have the central role in designing their lives and their support, and to have support from staff to use tools such as Wellness Recovery Action Plans or the PATH planning model, should they wish.
“Henry” was living in one of our residential care homes. Previously, he had experienced years of challenges around his mental health diagnosis and failed accommodation placements. On moving in to the Sussex Oakleaf home, Henry and his key worker immediately started working on an action plan to prepare and support him towards moving into more independent accommodation. Henry’s action plan included improving his daily living skills, self catering, budgeting, managing medication and managing his mental health. Through this planned process, his skills and confidence improved dramatically, and in January 2007 he successfully moved into a Supported Housing placement.
Feedback from care coordinators:
“I am a care coordinator in West Sussex. I have had a client placed with [Sussex Oakleaf] for approximately twelve months. During that time the staff team have been very supportive of the client, particularly in the areas of independence. The individual was someone who had had little opportunity to practice their independent living skills. Since living [there], they are now able to prepare simple meals, to self care more effectively and also to interact with the local community. The support plans that I have received have been thorough and the client has been facilitated to meet those goals. I feel that the client is in an environment where recovery is actively encouraged.”
The staff work towards promoting recovery and empowerment by recognising the uniqueness of each person receiving their services, and supporting the individual to express their desires, building on their strengths, assisting with making choices and self determination, encouraging self management of her/his illness and actively involved in the direction of individuals treatment plans and service provision.”
Views from service users about their home:
“I like it here and have had 34 homes before. I would like to stay here. It is the best place that I have lived in.”
“I felt that the enthusiasm of the staff has helped all residents’ move in rather positively.”
“I feel that staff’s cheerfulness has rubbed off on us and made us feel at home and reasonably contented and happy.”
“I am quite satisfied now but was a bit worried before about an accumulation of things but with a bit of luck I think things are sorting out now.”
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.
