The health in mind Support, Accommodation & Respite Service provides support to people living at home who are experiencing or recovering from mental health difficulties. The service is designed to assist service users in developing and maintaining the practical and social skills required for independent community living. The Respite service is designed to give people who care for someone with mental health difficulties, a “break from caring”.


Aims of the service
-  treat our service users with dignity and respect
-  the level of support depends on the needs of the service user. The service is flexible and visits  

   are tailored to suit each person’s needs.
-  the support workers visit and work alongside people in their own homes or in an environment where

   service users feel safe and comfortable.
-  involve service users in all aspects of the service including staff recruitment and service evaluations
-  provide life-skills training in groups.

Depending on the individual needs of service users the range of support offered can include:

· develop daily living skills; e.g. budgeting, household skills
· look at training and employment issues and following them up where necessary
· find appropriate emotional support – either from our service or others
· consider how they would manage in a crisis and what help they need to prevent and resolve a crisis
· link in with other community resources
· maintain their own homes and tenancies
· build a network of social support
· find meaningful day time activities

We are registered as a Housing Support provider with the Care Commission and comply with the Scottish Social Services Council Code of Practice.

Accommodation
We have agreements with a range of housing providers in Edinburgh that enable us to offer, subject to availability, supported accommodation to people with mental health difficulties.

The service aspires to enable people to regain and / or maintain their lives in their new or existing communities.

Our flats can be fully furnished if required. Rent is payable for the accommodation, although most tenants are eligible for housing benefit. Tenants are responsible for payment of their own utility bills. The service provides a full housing management service which includes property maintenance, equipping of flats and welfare benefits advice.

Applications
Applications are accepted from single people, couples or parents with children and we are keen to encourage applications from people from ethnic minorities, single parents and people who also have physical health difficulties.

At application, we will ask applicants for references. Applicants will also be expected to demonstrate a degree of self awareness appropriate to living in the community and a willingness to live independently without a residential or “on-call” worker.

On receipt of references, applicants will be have an informal meeting with members of the team. Once an applicant has been accepted they will be placed onto the waiting list and it may be some time before a funded support place and/or suitable accommodation becomes available.


Support, Accommodation & Respite
Rights and Responsibilities
We are open and honest with the people we support about our roles and responsibilities. One aspect of our role is to monitor people’s well-being and alert other agencies if necessary.

You can expect us
· to be open and honest with you at all times
· to treat you with respect and consideration at all times
· to inform you of any changes to your support as soon as possible
· to respect your confidentiality at all times in line with health in mind’s Confidentiality policy
· to offer on-going supervision and training to our staff team, which will help us to deliver a professional

  service to you
· to have regular reviews to let you raise concerns and add to or amend your agreed support plan and risk

  assessment
· to have an accurate and up to date record of your support kept in a secure file accessible only to relevant

  staff. These records are accessible to you upon request
· to access all policies and procedures at any time by contacting the Service Manager. You can also access 

  any existing Care Commission inspection reports

We expect from you:
· to be open and honest with staff
· to agree a support plan and risk assessment with your support worker and participate in agreed areas of

  work
· to meet with your support worker at the agreed times and tell them or the office if you cannot attend or if

  there are any changes to what has been agreed
· to participate in formal reviews of your support plan
· to treat all health in mind staff with respect


Respite Service
The health in mind Respite Service is designed to give people who care for someone with mental health difficulties, a “break from caring”.
A support worker will provide the service, which will be tailored to each person’s needs.

It is for the carer to decide how they wish to use this time. The worker will take over their caring role and spend the time to the benefit of each individual.

Service Objectives
- To give carers a break and the opportunity to have a period of time to use as they wish.
- To reduce the stress, isolation and emotional ill-health that may be experienced by carers, thus

  enhancing their ability to care.
- To help avoid a crisis which may result in a hospital admission.


Service Hours, Charges & Availability
The Support, Accommodation & Respite service run 7 days a week and are operational on all public holidays except Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Day and 2nd January.

Hours are arranged according to availability and individual needs.

The Visiting Support Service is funded in a number of ways:

• Social Work Department
• Supporting People
• Direct Payments
or
• Private Contract

The first two fundings are subject to availability and strict criteria.

You may be asked to complete a financial assessment by the Social Work Department or the Supporting People team. This is to establish whether you should contribute towards the cost of the support. Many people are not required to pay for their support, some pay a small contribution towards the costs.

The Respite Service is free at point of delivery within Edinburgh City and is also subject to availability.

For further information about charges, access and availability to the services, please feel free to contact a member of staff.


The Support, Accommodation & Respite Service is monitored through regular service user reviews and questionnaires which enable us to listen and learn from your feedback about our service. health in mind wishes at all times to provide a high quality service to the people using its services. We therefore welcome suggestions and representations that might lead to service improvement. Our complaints procedure provides further information about how you can do this.