RJA

 Mental health and housing : joined up thinking for 21st Century  community mental health ....   
The “At Home?”report - key messages
“At Home?” is the report of a study of mental health issues arising in mainstream (or “general needs”) social housing, originally commissioned by NIMHE NEY&H RDC, as part of their on-going social inclusion programme.  

This study begins with a survey of the views and experiences of frontline social housing staff. Over 150 staff were interviewed about mental health problems that they encounter in the course of their work.

They were asked what kinds of problems they encountered; how they found trying to work with mental health services; and what worked, and what they thought needed to happen, to improve inter-agency co-operation, and to provide a better, more “joined up” service.
The central section of the report is a reportage, in which the experiences of housing staff are expressed by a string of direct quotations, which cover a wide range of inter-connected issues, from communications to lettings policies, the value of housing support and impact of the Supporting People programme, and the need for more strategic development and “joined up targets”.

From these, a complex picture of the emerging role of social housing in community begins to appear; and from this picture, the draft report goes on to draw some general points and broad recommendations; and three key messages.  

From these three broad positions stem the specific recommendations both for immediate practical measures at local level to improve communications and co-operation between these two sectors, and for guidance and direction from national audit and quality assurance bodies, to monitor and incentivise closer co-operation.

Exec summary
Full Report
Articles in the press on “At Home?”


The report was received by the CSIP/NIMHE national inter-agency Housing Reference Group, and originally published on the National Social Inclusion Programme website (now defunct).

The full report is nevertheless available in the Publications section. Many of the specific recommendations are now common practice. Here nevertheless we summarise the key messages, which continue to need saying.

 

THREE KEY MESSAGES

 

1: Social housing has become the principal vehicle in practice for successive governments’ policy commitments to treat and to house the most vulnerable in the community.

 

Social housing should therefore now be seen as providing one of the essential resources for community care.

 

This community care role needs to be better recognised; and that what is seen as good practice in social housing should be seen in that light.

 

 

2: Mental health services should not continue to regard the housing needs of their clientele – and any shortages of suitable housing - as essentially the responsibility of some other agency.

 

Rather, mental health services should be positively engaging in identifying these housing needs, working with local housing agencies on fully comprehensive local needs analysis and strategies, and feeding this information on needs into national housing strategies.

 

 

3. With the development of floating support, and networked housing, and with a growing awareness of the role of housing in building sustainable, inclusive communities, general needs social housing and supported accommodation cannot any longer be seen as separate worlds.

 

Rather, they must be seen as part of a continuum of housing services, which also includes shared ownership and private sector leasing; floating support, networked housing, and supported accommodation; floating support, networked housing, and supported accommodation; rehabilitation units, and residential care.

 

A “whole systems” approach to the meeting housing and support needs of those with mental health problems needs to encompass this whole range; and developing closer relations with housing services must be a priority for any comprehensive local mental health accommodation strategy.