Community support

Because people’s mental health needs and aspirations change over time, the support we offer is based on a flexible and person-centred approach to recovery, working closely with both the individual and their key worker. We constantly strive for improvement to our services and they all operate within our own Quality Assurance Programme.

Community support services

We offer four types of community support services:

• Community services
• Befriending services
• One-to-one community support
• User involvement services

Community services

These offer a broad spectrum of support through one-to-one and small group work which provides informal social contact, practical help and community based opportunities. They give individuals the chance to develop new skills through structured and focused work and offer access to a wide range of information, support and advice on issues such as mental health, benefits, employment and training. Services operate from community locations or designated resource centres and many offer social spaces.

We are continuing to strengthen the links between our community services and others, including employment and training, to give people practical support and empower them with the confidence to move back into work.

Befriending services

These services offer individuals a volunteer befriender with whom they can build a one-to-one and focused relationship. This provides consistency of support and increases opportunities for social involvement through regular contact and mutually agreed activities. Befrienders can also help the people who use these services become more confident socially by supporting them to access local facilities where new social connections can be made.

One-to-one community support

These services provide support, on a one-to-one basis, to enable individuals to live independently and access opportunities for social involvement locally. This may include support to individuals to manage their mental health; practical support with daily living skills, for example shopping, healthy eating and budgeting; as well as help to access education, leisure, faith, volunteering, and employment opportunities within the community.

User involvement services

These commissioned services offer opportunities for people who use mental health services to influence the way they are planned, delivered and monitored locally. They have close links with statutory and voluntary sector providers, and allow users of mental health services to express their views and interests through representation at statutory and service meetings. They also help develop communication and assertiveness skills and provide volunteering opportunities. 

We encourage everyone using our community support services to become actively involved, for example through participation in Service Advisory Groups. All our services strive to support individual person-centred planning approaches, encouraging recovery and social inclusion and offering an environment in which everyone is treated with respect and dignity.

We also have community support services which are dedicated to working with black and minority ethnic communities.

What people say about our community support services

In a survey of people that use our services carried out by our Research Team, 90 per cent of people using our community support services feel they are benefiting from the service that they use with 98 per cent saying that staff and volunteers listen to them, are approachable and treat them with dignity and respect.