Organisation Name: Leeds Survivor Led Crisis Service Contact name: Fiona Venner Job title: Manager Email: fiona.venner@lslcs.org.uk Telephone contact: 0113 260 9328 www.lslcs.org.uk
Leeds Survivor Led Crisis Service was set up in 1999 by a group of campaigning mental health service users.
We are a charity and provide out of hours services to people in acute mental health crisis. We provide the following services:
Connect Helpline: a telephone helpline open 6-10.30 every night of the year, providing emotional support and information for people in distress. We receive around 5000 calls a year. People can ring who are in crisis, anxious, depressed or lonely. They will be offered non judgemental and empathic support and information about other services, if requested. Connect also receives funding to provide emotional support to people who are carers.
Dial House: Is a place of sanctuary open 6pm-2am Friday - Sunday. Visitors can access when they are in crisis. We have 70-110 visits per month. Visitors can relax in a homely environment and have time out from an environment which may be exacerbating the emotional distress. Visitors can receive one to one support from our team of Crisis Support Workers.
The organisation is governed, managed and staffed by people with our own direct experience of mental health problems. We have developed our organisation based on this expertise, whilst also listening to the needs articulated by our visitors and callers.
In addition to the above services, we provide a range of group work. In the past staff have facilitated Coping with Crisis and Coping with Christmas groups and a weekly group aimed at providing peer support to people who were chronically lonely and isolated.
Since June 2007, we have been working towards our group work programme being entirely peer led; that is run by the visitors and callers who use our services. We employ a Group Work Support Worker, but her role is not to deliver the group work but to support visitors to do so.
The visitors were provided with training in facilitation skills and cultural difference and are provided with ongoing support from the Group Work Support Worker. The peer group programme is also supported by a Service User Involvement Consultant from Touchstone, another mental health charity in Leeds.
The visitors have developed a second group and named the groups ‘My Time.'
My Time Wednesday: This is an emotional support group run entirely by visitors. The group meet from 3-5.30 with one hour being the emotional support meeting. Prior to the group beginning, the Group Work Support Worker helped the group with establishing ground rules, facilitation skills etc.
My Time Thursday: This group provides social and peer support. The group eat together (often the only time that members eat with anyone else during the week) and there is usually another activity, such as art work or a discussion.
Group members have also been meeting outside of the organisation to visit other services and access mainstream events. At the time of writing, people are about to meet to visit the Leeds German Christmas market.
Leeds Survivor Led Crisis Service receives funding from NHS Leeds and Adult Social Care. We fund the group work from within existing resources, with additional funding for the group work from Leeds Personality Disorder Clinical Network (part of Leeds Partnership Foundation Trust, the mental health trust). Visitors also contribute towards the cost of events.
Visitors are not paid to run the group work, though they are for other involvement work. Visitors and callers are invited to attend a bi monthly Focus Group, where they can critique the services of the organisation and contribute to their development. People are paid £5.80 per hour to attend these meetings which are facilitated by the Vice Chair, who is a current mental health service user. Visitors are also paid the same amount to participate in recruitment of staff.
The group work does not have explicit links with statutory services. Leeds Survivor Led Crisis Service was established to provide an alternative to psychiatric admission and statutory services. However, most people are sign posted to the organisation by statutory providers, particularly the Leeds Personality Disorder Clinical Network, the Crisis Resolution Team, Acute Community Day Services, CPNs and Social Workers. Leeds Survivor Led Crisis Service is a charity outside of statutory services, but maintains a collaborative relationship with staff and service users in these settings.
What have been the benefits for individual service users (and others) accessing your project?
The provision of social, emotional and peer support has prevented some people from needing to access Dial House and other crisis and emergency services.
The outcomes Leeds Survivor Led Crisis Service is funded to provide are ‘Reducing risk/preventing worse happening' and ‘Supporting people to resolve or better manage crisis.' We can evidence that the group work supports us to deliver these outcomes. This is particularly through the support and friendship visitors gain from each other and the learning they gain from each other regarding coping strategies.
In addition to this, the group work prevents chronic loneliness and isolation and supports social inclusion. Visitors have gained skills in facilitation, communication, negotiation, cooking and art work through the group work. Visitors have also been enabled to access places, such as museums, markets and other services, which they may not have visited alone. Attending the group work has supported one regular attender to remain in paid employment, while others have used it as a stepping stone to accessing college, or other group work and mainstream activities.
The group work also provides support to carers; two of whom attend the group, while for others it provides some respite whilst the person they support is at Dial House.
Are you considering any future developments in response to the ‘Personalisation' agenda?
We would see the group work as a service that could be purchased through personal budgets.
We wish to develop our group work, so that there is the provision of a peer led men's and women's group and peer run coping with crisis, coping with self harm and coping with suicidal feelings courses and workshops. Our long term aim is that through the learning they have gained, visitors will be able to deliver training and consultancy outside of Leeds Survivor Led Crisis Service about running peer led services.
Key words - peer, group work, crisis, personality disorder, carer