THE LODGE

Service Specification

 

The Lodge is a community based supported accommodation it comprises of  9units with   en-suite facilities, one respite unit and day care facilities, for people with high support needs. It is a 24/7 step down facility which will focus on rehabilitation based on the principle of hope to enable recovery. The service users will be involved at all levels of care and activities will be provided 7 days a week. The Lodge will use the recovery approach to work with users to manage their mental wellbeing. It will help people move towards recovery by encouraging them to share their personal story, as a first step towards reclaiming control over their lives, which includes writing their story in their own words. Their story will be listened to and respected, and used as part of their assessments and to plan care and treatment.

 

The Recovery Plan is informed by the risk assessment and will be reviewed and updated formally on a three-weekly basis, but will be subject to adaption throughout the service user’s stay. In brief the Plan includes:

- Goals individually set by the service user

- Strengths and barriers to achieving these goals, as well as identifying all

  recovery capital elements present in the service user’s life

- Actions to be taken which will meet the goals set

- What others can do to help support the individual

- Contingency if plans need to be change

​

Activities within the Recovery Plan seek to achieve the following outcomes:

- Secure housing by, supporting service users to link with the Local Authority and other agencies

- Accessing employment and/or training by linking in with Job Centre Plus and other agencies including Merton Adult Education and numerous others.

- Improving life skills by developing service users parenting skills, self-worth, communication skills, and healthy living (harm minimisation) through courses such as those provided at the Trust Recovery College

- Developing financial management skills by advising and training around debt management and budgeting    through linking with Merton Citizens Advice Bureau.

- Gaining insight in order to achieve harm minimisation by engaging in Dual diagnosis work with Merton    substance misuse agencies, and moving on to psychological interventions including where appropriate, IAPT  services.

- Improving physical health by registering all service users with local GPs, providing information on the side    effects of medication and supporting them to make healthy lifestyle choices.

​

  In order to achieve this, the Lodge will provide:

- Assertive proactive support including driving service users to meetings or appointments, completing forms and advocating for them as necessary, attending 3-way meetings, escorting them to access local services and

supporting the service user to work with local peer support networks.

- Key work support such as advice and information to service users on a wide range of issues such as the   effects of different drugs, household management, and accessing mainstream groups and services to   maintain the life choices whilst living in the community for example.

- Structured days are an important part of our therapeutic system and includes;

regular outings, activities such as gym attendance and these will become more frequent as the service user    moves towards recovery.

- Service users at the Lodge will start their day by having a breakfast meeting together will all the staff on duty to plan their day. Service users will be encouraged to see themselves as equal members of the Lodge team and in doing so will take on shared responsibility and ownership of decision making.

​

The service provided by the Lodge will incorporate the activities described above in the following way

a. Step One – Assessment and goal setting. Service users will be involved in setting their own goals and assistance will be given to help the service users identify their strengths, weaknesses and desires. The focus will be to identify what skills an individual need to support them to move to independent living and to positively manage their own mental and physical health. This will be done by psychosocial interventions, health education, cognitive awareness, one to one sessions, group sessions, mindfulness, brief solution focused therapy, problem solving, relapse prevention, relaxation and anxiety management, medication management, smoking cessation, diet/exercise, keeping service users engaged. Risk assessment and management, interpersonal skills, helping service users access other services, multi-agency/professional working,

and so on. To maximise opportunities, the service would aim, where possible, to meet and asses potential service users whilst they are still in an in-patient setting. This will also serve to build positive relationships between the service and the service user prior to admission to the step down service.

 

b. Step Two - Building social functioning skills and achieving goals. Having identified what goals are required in step one, the service will work with the individuals to improve their social functioning skills, build confidence and work through the required steps (identified at step one) to goal attainment. This will be done by structured community engagement activities and accessing wider services, outside the Lodge such as voluntary sector services, leisure centre, library, local college, gym, spiritual activities, the Trust Recovery College, carers support group and so on. There will also be a range of educational support and advice provided in order to support service users to gain insight into their mental illness and equip the service users to manage their own care. This will include planning with individuals about responding to triggers so as to avoid and reduce episodes of crisis. Health education to support medicines management and mental health awareness.

 

c. Step Three – Exploring opportunities to engage in structured activities as work (paid and unpaid), peer support or education.

 

d. Step Four – Preparation for moving on. Supporting servicer users to move towards independent living.

​

Recovery Star Approach :

In delivering this model of care the Lodge will use the Recovery Star outcomes

measurement tool which looks at the ten areas of the service user’s life:

1. Managing their mental health

2. Promoting self-care

3. Developing skills for life

4. Building social networks and peer support

5. Getting ready for work including formal training

6. Re-establishing and building relationships

7. Overcoming addictive behaviours

8. Building identity and self-esteem

9. Taking responsibilities that promotes independent living

10. Fostering trust and hope

​​

This will ensure that both the service user and staff at the Lodge are clear about the outcomes they have agreed to work with. Building a good therapeutic alliance will be a key determinant in the road toward recovery for the service user.

 

Providing Transport :

The service user’s first tentative steps towards independent living are understood to be the most important experience of their journey. These experiences will be long lasting and so the Lodge understands the importance of creating a positive environment. The Lodge will therefore provide transport where appropriate to

assertively work with service users to access services and activities. Many people find travelling difficult and this can act as a major barrier to doing the things they want to do. Even if the person is able to use public transport, it may be just too daunting to have to undertake both a complicated journey and a new activity all at

the same time. In such instances, access can be facilitated by providing transport to take the person to whatever activity e.g. sport centre, workplace, library or cinema. Once a service user is ready, the Lodge will support service users to access public transport in order that individuals are able to independently access their activity of choice and can continue to do so once there are living independently.

​

Peer support :

Developing partnerships for service users with support from other local agencies will enable service users to build a life beyond the Lodge and to further support this the Lodge will support the development of peer support through:

- Coordinating a mutual peer support network, where service users in recovery can train to be a Peer Buddy to other service users.

- Enabling service users to receive intensive training to be a Recovery Coach to support service users.

- Sharing premises/resources to support peer-led groups (for example the Living in Recovery Group at SWLSTG)

- Offering training for brief interventions to local community groups.

- Offering service users a timetable of peer-led groups for specific groups (e.g. Women, BME etc.).

- Sourcing specific options for young people, families and parents through dedicated leads

- Providing on-going support. The Lodge recovery champions will co-ordinate mutual aid forums

 

Carers Support : The Lodge will hold a Friends and Family forum on a monthly basis to identify issues and also ways to improve the service.

 

Benefits : There will be a dedicated welfare rights advisor at the Lodge who will be supporting service users to claim housing benefit and any other benefit that they may be entitled to. The aim of this is to speed the stepping down from the Lodge.

 

Physical health is paramount for the service users, the Lodge will work with local GPs to ensure that all service users are registered and the physical health is monitored and problems treated accordingly. The Lodge will also work with local dentists to ensure that dental care is accessible to the service users.

 

Housing : The Lodge will work with the housing officers from the local authority by holding monthly meeting at the Lodge. Service users will attend the meeting where their housing need will be identified and addressed.

​

Reviews : The steps will be reviewed together with the care coordinator from the community on a three weekly basis, although this can be done earlier if need and daily assessments will be carried out in order to decide this. That will help to monitor achievement and outcome and planning step down from the Lodge.

 

The Lodge will operate a 24/7 service throughout the year and will employ appropriately

trained staff to support this, including:

- A manager

- Support workers

- Activity workers

The Lodge will communicate and engage by working in partnership with local stakeholders to promote social inclusion and recovery for our service users. Key aspects of engagement include: -

- Good concise communications (written and verbal)

- By holding regular meetings

- By engaging in community activities

- Sending out information

- Sending questionnaires to stakeholders for feedback

- Keeping health and Care Managers informed

- Attendance at key meetings when required

- Conducting exit interviews for placements

- Having up to date information on a website

​

Smoking is not allowed in The Lodge however, there is a designated smoking shelter in the garden.

The on-site staff team will provide 24-hours cover with a waking night service and additional support will be available if required. There is also management cover at all times.The service is for people who require 24/7 supported accommodation, respite or day support facilities. The service is for service users aged 18 to 75 who have high support needs.