ao link
Twitter
Facebook
Linked In
Twitter
Facebook
Linked In

You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles

Let’s make the case for supported housing

Supported housing provides a vital lifeline for many individuals, says Moira Griffiths

Linked InTwitterFacebookeCard
Sharelines

Let’s make the case for supported housing, by Moira Griffiths

On the day I go walking with one of our supported housing customers, Amy, the National Housing Federation reports that 85% of planned developments for new supported housing have been pulled.

Closer to home, I’m updated about the inevitable closure of three services we provide in London, which collectively support almost 60 people recovering from mental illness. It feels like I now spend 85% of my time planning for service cuts and closures – despite very clear evidence that well-managed and efficient supported housing is part of a solution to many of the challenges faced by the NHS and social care.

Amy recently moved into supported housing where she lives alongside other co-tenants who, like her, are recovering from mental illness.

To promote well-being we have been encouraging the people we support and our colleagues to walk together, using step counters as an extra motivator. Amy had really risen to this challenge and had started walking regularly and increasing her step count every week; she was keen to challenge me to walk and so we booked a date.


READ MORE

Associations pull 85% of planned supported housing developmentsAssociations pull 85% of planned supported housing developments
Investor launches £400m fund targeting supported housingInvestor launches £400m fund targeting supported housing

Incredibly, Amy and I managed almost 4,000 steps, and while we walked we talked and she explained how she had become unwell and spent several months in hospital. When her nursing team started to talk about discharge she said she felt terrified of being alone and this panic caused her to become distressed and unwell all over again. Eventually she was linked to our service, where she felt reassured that staff would be around to help her if she felt anxious, but she would still have her own flat where she could get back to doing the things that mattered most to her.

“It’s so difficult to be heard and we are not helped by the complexity that we have built into our own sector.”

Amy was really into fitness before she became ill and as she is now walking three times a week, she hopes to be back at a gym soon. She is also contemplating getting back to work and generally feels more hopeful about herself and her life.

As Amy steps towards a brighter future, personally I feel I’m stepping towards a very uncertain one professionally. It’s so difficult to be heard and we are not helped by the complexity that we have built into our own sector. ‘Supported housing’ is a collective term for numerous services and funding models, all of which are affected by local policy and commissioning.

Our service closures are planned in areas where we know that there are delayed discharges from psychiatric hospitals and huge pressures on statutory mental health services. I wonder (again) how many people like Amy will remain in hospital unnecessarily or will be unable to access treatment services until they become more unwell than they are now. Reducing the availability of supported housing pushes people and spend upwards in the system, towards more expensive and radical interventions.

“Individuals, communities, health and social care all benefit from supported housing.”

The case has been made repeatedly about the value of our sector but I sometimes wonder whether we are only being heard by ourselves – who from outside the supported housing sector is fighting the cause? What would it take for the various ‘systems’ that shape service delivery, design and commissioning to come together to eliminate waste and focus energy and resources into ‘place-based’ service development?

Supported housing is a safe and secure place to live where support and advice are available from co-tenants, paid staff and community services. It’s a successful and cost-effective model that complements and supports statutory services and fundamentally helps people get their lives back on track.

In many situations it reduces the person’s need to be long-term dependent on ‘paid-for’ services, however with such uncertainty about the future funding of property and support costs, it’s difficult to feel optimistic about a sustainable future.

My walk with Amy gives me the impetus I need to keep stepping forward despite the obstacles that seemingly get in the way. Individuals, communities, health and social care all benefit from supported housing. Good health ‘Starts at Home’ – and for some of our citizens, that home needs the advantage of some extra assistance.

Moira Griffiths, executive director of care and support services, Peabody

Linked InTwitterFacebookeCard
Add New Comment
You must be logged in to comment.