Community support

Rethink provides a number of community support services, offering people with severe mental illness the support and help they need to regain confidence to engage in everyday social and workplace activities.

As people’s mental health needs and aspirations change over time, the support we offer is based on a flexible and personalised 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.

The service could not be improved in my opinion and was excellent in every way. It gives time out from everyday problems and makes you face life's everyday problems with much more clarity and determination to succeed wherever and whenever possible.

Ammar, user of Rethink community support services

Types of services

We offer four types of community support services:

community services, offering a broad spectrum of support through one-to-one and small group work which provide informal social contact, practical help and community based opportunities
befriending services, offering individuals a volunteer befriender with whom they can build a one-to-one relationship
one-to-one community support, to enable individuals to live independently and access opportunities for social involvement locally
user involvement services, supporting users of mental health services to influence the planning, delivering and monitoring of service

Why choose Rethink's community support services?

flexible and personalised approach to recovery, working closely with the service user and their key worker
strong track record of working in partnership with Community Mental Health Teams and other agencies
community services linked to other service types, including advocacy and employment, offering practical support and confidence-building
user involvement in service development and delivery through Service Advisory Groups
innovative approach - moving away from traditional service models such as drop-in centres

"In Bristol, support for people with mental illness in the community has been radically transformed to shed the outdated model of a day centre..." Read our community support case study