Sussex Oakleaf has a wide range of mental health supported housing schemes, both shared houses and self contained flats, across the county. The level of support can vary from a few hours a week of housing-related support to a higher level of support with a self directed support package or an individual budget.
The service aims to provide short term (up to 2 years) housing with support for people with mental health issues who are in housing need with identified support needs. The packages of support are flexible and responsive to provide a response to, or to avoid situations where, people are inappropriately accommodated. By doing so it is hoped to minimize the level of distress, the need for psychiatric hospital, enable people to build their self confidence, and support people into more appropriate independent and secure accommodation.
The support we provide 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.
The support we provide varies from person to person, but can include:
- Advice and guidance with form-filling, claiming benefits and grants
- Liaison with other support, training or employment agencies
- Support with budgeting and daily living skills
- Access to other services, e.g. addiction support and talking therapy
- Access to social activities
- Links to Day Services and mainstream facilities.
- Help with moving on to living independently and finding work/training
The person will develop a support plan, through the use of the Recovery Star, with their Independent Living Worker which is reviewed on a regular basis. The plan is goal and recovery focused, with the aim of assisting people to move into more independent accommodation.
We work closely with multi disciplinary Community Mental Health Teams, family/carers, advocates and other professionals to ensure the best possible support is provided.
To complement our accommodation-based services, we also provide a Floating Support service which can be put in place to support people through the move on process.
Personal Statement
“I have moved around a lot in my life being in care as a child and hospital as an adult. I now feel settled and have started to collect stuff like DVD’s and books and even call here ‘home.”
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.
