Description
The Ormeau Centre is a residential unit for homeless people who have multiple needs and is situated in Belfast City Centre. The ethos of the project is to provide a non-judgemental, caring and high tolerance environment to deal with the problems associated with homelessness through a values and needs-led approach in working with service users. The Ormeau Centre aims to resettle service users in the most appropriate accommodation to meet their needs. These may include a combination of the following:
- Mental Health
- Addictions
- Learning Disability
|
- Vulnerability
- Offending Behaviour
- Relationship Issues
|
- Physical Health Issues
- Disability
- Challenging Behaviour
|
Objectives
-
To provide a person-centred and individual approach to assessment of need, care and risk.To provide a high tolerance and caring environment for service users.
-
To assess, plan, intervene and review to assist in social inclusion.
-
To develop innovative responses to developing and future needs of the service user group.
-
To empower individuals to develop skills and resources for resettlement and independent living.
-
To develop inter-agency working and advocate and lobby for service-users' rights to quality service provision.
-
To promote continuous professional development to ensure effective and quality staff and service provision.
Referral Criteria
-
The Ormeau Centre will consider referrals for males and females age between 17 and 65 years.
-
All referrals are assessed on the basis of need and risk.
-
The project is direct access and also takes referrals from other agencies.
-
Input from other agencies forms an integral part of the referral and assessment process.
Working hours:
Residential 24 hour staff support
Multi-Disciplinary Working
Support planning with residents is anchored within a multi-disciplinary context and the Ormeau Centre has formed and developed very positive working relationships with other Extern projects and external agencies including:
These positive working relationships highlight the project's commitment to an inter-agency approach in working with service users who have multi-complex needs.
Resettlement
The Ormeau Centre has a dedicated resettlement role on site. The team work with service users both in terms of obtaining appropriate accommodation and maintaining tenancies once they have been resettled. This link can often make the difference between success with a new, independent lifestyle and being unable to cope. Service users face new challenges when they take on a tenancy and the resettlement team strives to ensure that they do not feel isolated or unsupported once they move on. This is often carried out with the input and support of other community-based agencies.
The resettlement role includes co-ordinating the social and lifeskills programme within the service whereby service users are given the opportunity to develop new skills which may help towards resettlement and independent living. Areas addressed include:
-
Personal Development including self-esteem and assertiveness
-
Anger management
-
Addiction Awareness
-
Housing Rights
-
Problem-Solving Skills
-
Budgeting Skills
-
Moving on from hostel to home
-
Health & Lifestyle
-
Job Hunting/ Further Education
Outreach Clinics: Psychiatric/ Addictions
The outreach psychiatric clinic has developed as a direct response to the increasing number of service users presenting with mental health issues and the excellent working relationship with community mental health and in-patient psychiatric services. A fortnightly clinic is held in the project for initial assessments and reviews which then forms part of the service user's action/support plan. The designated psychiatrist is also on call to provide guidance and support as required.
Staff from the Multi-Disciplinary Homeless Support Team also hold a mental health clinic in the project on a regular basis. This team provide ongoing assessment and support in work with individual service users. An Addiction Clinic is also facilitated by addiction social worker, MDHST.
Independent Living Skills
The promotion of independent living skills is an integral part of the work undertaken with all service users. This may take the form of individual sessions, groupwork, involvement in daily tasks, responsibility for personal space and participation in recreation activities.