Supported housing helps keep mental health patients out of hospital
- 30 Apr
The intensive enablement scheme in Essex helps people who are struggling with their mental health learn simple living skills following a stay in hospital.
The intensive enablement project has been run by Essex council, the local mental health trust and the Metropolitan housing association. It helps people to manage their medication along with learning basic living skills such as cooking and managing a budget, with the hopes of people becoming fully independent within 18 months, reports the Guardian.
Chris Powell can testify to that. He spent six months with the scheme and has now moved out to more independent accommodation. "They worked very hard with me on stuff like budgeting and making links in the community and now they've stepped the support down a bit. There's still a long way to go, but so far I'm coping."
Russell White, a social work consultant on the intensive enablement project says, "If this wasn't here we would see massive spikes in homelessness and in people going into hospital. We would see people losing their tenancies and we'd have a whole group of people who were impossible to house. The end game of all that is that their mental health deteriorates, they become an inpatient and it takes a lot of expensive care to get them out of hospital. Then the cycle begins again."
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