Greater Norwich Outreach

The City Team
In Norwich, Julian Housing Support’s services are managed by Ian Radley with a team of eight workers.

Most of the work of Julian Housing in the Norwich area, as elsewhere, is outreach support to people in their own homes.

This is achieved by advocating with housing providers, liaising with statutory services, and providing practical ‘hands on support’ to help people manage their accommodation. We also work closely with the Julian Housing link worker. The link worker provides housing advice and support for patients on the acute city wards for a period of up to approximately six weeks and will often refer patients on to the City team to address their more long term housing needs (see separate leaflet).

Referrals

Adults with mental health problems and housing needs can be referred by Norfolk Mental Health Care Trust, continuing support teams and local authority Housing Officers.Referrals / enquiries should be directed to:

Ian Radley, City Team Manager

Tel: 01603 767718
E-mail: enquiry@julianhousing.org

Because of the demographics of the city population a significant proportion of the work involves resettlement. This includes providing a period of more intensive support whilst people locate and settle into appropriate housing.

Floating Support

The Norwich Team also operates ‘floating support’ services. The service is funded by ’Supporting People’. This support can be more or less intensive as needs dictate or can ‘float’ to another tenant if needs diminish. Julian Housing contracts with both the City Council and Central Supporting People team to provide support to people in any tenure including B & B.

The role of the Floating Support Worker is fundamental in helping prevent a deterioration in someone’s mental health, by absorbing some of the stresses involved in maintaining a tenancy. Whilst the support worker can help with basic issues such as benefits, services and practical tasks, the sustaining role of floating support cannot be overstated.

The Floating Support Worker can assist people to achieve or retain their chosen life style, maximising independence and avoiding hospitalisation, and also help tenants use the resource of the wider community, by helping them back into the social mainstream. Many clients suffering from severe and ongoing mental ill health have talents and strengths that may remain hidden. The Floating Support Worker can help build a tenant’s confidence, developing and strengthening coping strategies. This support can last for up to two years.

Supported Housing

The team also supports four 3-person clusters of shared, supported accommodation. This type of accommodation is preferred by people who do not want to live alone, or who want to test out their independent living skills.

The team have the benefit of in-house advice from a specialist drug and alcohol worker and a welfare rights and housing specialist (see separate leaflet). There is also the benefit of a social inclusion worker who will work in conjunction with staff and service users to access mainstream community resources. They also strive to keep up to date with current practice issues through a comprehensive in-house and external training programme.