County based organisation, Adults Supporting Adults (ASA), have been awarded a yearlong grant by the Government’s Cabinet Office to record the impact of their Shared Lives services on people with mental ill health who live in the community.
Shared Lives is a unique form of care, whereby a person who needs support is carefully matched to live within a safe and secure family setting either on an Extended Stay (long term) or Respite basis. Through the family environment, the person is then supported to develop the necessary skills to become more independent and build their own networks in the local neighbourhood and community. This enables the person accessing the service to live better, healthier and lead a less isolated life.
The findings will inform the NHS’s Five Year Forward View on Mental Health, which is part of a wider £1.75 million NHS England investment project to develop Shared Lives services. The focus of which is the capability to discharge patients more quickly but also treat and maintain people at home and in their own neighbourhoods rather than being admitted to hospital care in the first place. Simon Stevens, NHS England Chief Executive, said “Whether helping someone with a learning disability to build a full life with a network of friends and family, or enabling an older person to recover from an operation in the peace and quiet of a familiar environment – people naturally value care and support in a loving family home. That’s why Shared Lives is an example of the kind of community and people-centred approach which needs to play a much bigger part in the NHS of the future.”
Trixie Bennett, Chief Executive of ASA added “We have been providing Shared Lives across the County for over 25 years now and through all of our services we support some 300 plus clients, a large number of which have been diagnosed with mental ill health. Working alongside the Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust and service-user led organisations such as SHINE, we have evidenced for a long time that the services ASA deliver provide tangible outcomes for people when living in the community. This is also consistently recognised by the regulatory body, Care Quality Commission, who monitor the standards within all of social care. Whereas the service is growing significantly across the country, unfortunately, Shared Lives is much under-utilised within Lincolnshire. In this time of significant cuts to adult social care budgets and NHS funding, viable alternatives must be found to support the most vulnerable in our society, of which Shared Lives should be considered more frequently. As one of only seven pilot areas across England, I am sure that the recommendations of this yearlong study will endorse the benefits of Shared Lives provision for people with mental ill health. We have recently restructured the organisation but continue to recruit new Shared Lives providers. We are particularly interested in people who can offer ground floor accommodation for people with limited mobility. If people are interested then they should call ASA on 01529 416270 or visit our website at www.asaorg.co.uk”
See more at http://lincsshine.co.uk/noticeboard/595-adults-supporting-adults-secure-cabinet-office-funding.html
