Supported Living
The Trust has seven supported living houses in the Southbourne, Christchurch and Kings Park area providing support to 45 residents, with access to staff support 24 hours per day. The houses vary in size from five to eight bedrooms, many with ensuite shower facilities. All the houses have shared communal spaces for the residents to come together and socialise and cook and eat together if they choose. Sharing a home does not mean they have to share lifestyles and our residents all enjoy a wide variety of different activities of their own choice.
The overarching purpose of our Supported Living service is to promote independent living and enable our residents to live as independently as possible. All of our homes are situated on a residential street within local communities, with good access to public transport links and close to local amenities such as shops, GP surgeries and leisure facilities.
We work in partnership with local housing associations to ensure that all residents are in receipt of the correct benefits, and to ensure that our properties are maintained to the high standards we expect.
Working closely with local authority Learning Disability teams, we match new residents very carefully with the existing group of residents to ensure that the new residents is the right fit. Our supported living houses are home to the people who live there and we have a responsibility to ensure that the peace and tranquillity of their home is not disrupted by introducing someone who has very different needs and expectations.
Regulated by the Care Quality Commission our staff teams work exceptionally hard to ensure that our residents are well supported and well cared for and are able to live their best and most independent life.
We work to the guidance of the Reach Standards:
- I choose who I live with
- I choose where I live
- I have my own home
- I choose how I am supported
- I choose who supports me
- I get good support
- I choose my friends and relationships
- I choose how to be healthy and safe
- I choose how to take part in my community
- I have the same rights and responsibilities as other citizens
- I get help to make changes in my life
Support Offered
Every one of our residents has an individualised support and wellbeing plan that is designed to meet their specific health needs and reflect their choices for how they spend their time. Many of them are actively engaged with our Day Services programme but also have other places they attend regularly, which ensures they are getting out and about more and having many different experiences.
Each person receives an element of one to one support, which gives them dedicated, uninterrupted support from a support worker to enable them to do things that are important to them. One to one support includes help with cooking, shopping and maintaining their personal space, going on a trip to the cinema or into town to do some shopping. Some of our residents enjoy going out for lunch or for a coffee, and some enjoy quieter activities such as a walk along the beach or in the park. One to one support time is provided to ensure that each person gets the support they need to enable them to experience a good quality of life and help them to participate in activities that some would find more challenging to do on their own.
The reward for the staff team is seeing our residents taking such a huge pride in their homes, enjoying sharing their lives with their friends and living their lives to the full as independently as they can. Seeing people’s confidence and self-esteem grow on a daily basis as our residents realise that there is a whole world to be explored and they can enjoy the excitement and positive experiences this brings is heart-warming and inspiring to us all!