The wellbeing of people with severe mental health problems significantly improves following personalised support in an accommodation setting, a new report, Evaluating Progression Together, has shown.
A three-year assessment of Together for Mental Wellbeing’s personalised accommodation based model, Progression Together, showed that participants who have received this support leave with an above average sense of wellbeing.
The Progression Together programme supports people with severe mental health issues to help them live independently.
The service also aims to offer people choice and control over how they are supported, working alongside each individual so they can achieve their own goals.
The evaluation, funded by the Department of Health, found that around half of participants did begin to live more independently.
Meanwhile, all participants reported that they had developed new skills that had prepared them to make this change in lifestyle.
Based on these findings The Mental Health Foundation now recommends further investment in research to explore how the personalised accommodation model could save money in other services, such as the criminal justice system.
Liz Felton, chief executive of Together for Mental Wellbeing, said: “At Together we believe that people can go on to lead an independent and fulfilling life, no matter where they start on their journey to recovering from mental distress.
“For people who have experienced severe mental health issues, this journey can be quite a difficult one. We designed our Progression Together services to give people choice and control over how they are supported, enabling them to progress towards living independently at a pace that’s right for them.
“The results of this evaluation are really encouraging. They show us that giving people choice and control enables them to progress from receiving a high level of support towards living on their own.
“We will be using the results of this evaluation, to champion the benefits of personalised support. We hope that by doing so we can ensure more people have access to truly personalised support which gives them the best chance of moving on with their life.”
Together’s personalised community mental health support was evaluated in a similar way last year.
The assessment also found that the programme increases wellbeing, as well as significantly improving social support and relationships.
