How can personalisation be applied to a residential setting?

At Together for Mental Wellbeing we have long stood by our principle of using the wants and needs of those using our support as a starting point for service design and delivery. We have also stood by our commitment to providing personalised services. By this we mean genuinely enabling individuals to have choice and control over their mental health support. We recognise that the implementation of personalisation in mental health has been slow and there have been a number of challenges when delivering this type of support. But we believe that we should all put the person in front of us at the centre of their support, as this can help each individual take steps towards leading the lives they want to lead.

This commitment is evident throughout all of our services from community support to criminal justice, but applying this to our accommodation services has been a particular area of focus for us. Recently our York Road accommodation service in Surrey, which provides personalised support to people with complex needs and forensic backgrounds, was shortlisted in the personalised care and support category at the Mental Health Providers Forum's Mental Health Voluntary Sector Awards 2015.

I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you the how we have applied personalisation to a residential setting at our York Road service, and how this has supported people as they take steps towards independent living.

York Road opened in 1955 and was our first accommodation service. Traditionally it was a long term home for people with low support needs, but we have since refurbished the service and reopened it as a High Support Unit offering specialist support to people with complex needs and forensic backgrounds. But what makes it different?

We redesigned the York Road service to provide support that prepared individuals to ultimately live independently in their communities, at a pace that is right for them. During the process we listened to and valued input from those that would be using the service. As a result we designed a two-tier service that follows the Progression Together model of personalised support in a residential setting. The first tier provides intensive residential support in a core house, while the second enables service users to take a step down into less intensive support in a detached property. They still receive transitional support in preparation for moving on in the housing pathway to their own place.

At each stage our staff work alongside individuals towards meaningful goals, and ensure these are achieved before moving to the next stage of the process. In addition, those using the service choose the support they receive and which Support Worker they would like to receive it from. We have also embedded peer support within the service. We believe that the provision of peer support is both possible and valuable no matter what the setting, as people with experience of mental distress can always support each other towards greater wellbeing.

We have found that this mix of ingredients helps residents prepare for the transition to independent living. In fact, over a 36 month period 79% of people that used our York Road service moved on to a more independent setting. People tell us that that the model works and that it enables individuals to achieve the outcomes that really matter to them. For example, one person that used the service said:

"They told me at 18 that I was not safe to be out in the community, and I spent much of my life in and out of hospital. Together helped me to move into a wonderful flat of my own. For a long, long time, thinking of living like I am now was just a dream."

But we are still committed to continually monitoring and reviewing the service itself and the Progression Together model to ensure it supports people in a way that works for them. We therefore provide a forum for those that use the service to provide feedback and this is then used to inform its design and delivery. At a broader level, the Department of Health has funded a three year evaluation to measure the effectiveness of our Progression Together model. We look forward to sharing the results and using these as evidence of the benefits of personalised services support in a residential setting.

This year as York Road celebrates its 60^th anniversary, it is a great time to reflect on how the service has enabled people to lead more independent and fulfilling lives, and how we can continue to do so in the future.