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 services can provide individually designed packages of support for people with high/complex needs living in the community and moving out of hospital or residential care. 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 Floating Support, Mental Health Outreach, Domiciliary Care and Day Services, we also provide a range of accommodation-based services including Supported Housing and Registered Care.
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.
Recovery
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.
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.
