Our movement as an organisation to support people with mental health

Hello! I’ll first introduce myself, my name is Sarah and I am a Clinical Psychologist. I started at Simon Community Scotland in January 2024. Before this, I worked in NHS services in Leeds and Bradford with people who face multiple disadvantages, including homelessness. I continually feel privileged to work with teams who put people at the heart of everything they do, with compassion and a sense of humour being central to their make-up. This sense of privilege shows up most whilst working alongside people we work with; who continually make me laugh, challenge my world view, put me to shame with their creativity and the tenacity they demonstrate in surviving some of the most unimaginable circumstances.  

 

It’s mental health awareness week!

This week is mental health awareness week and the theme this year is ‘movement for our mental health’. Whilst I really advocate for the benefits of exercise and how it impacts our mental health (nothing clears my head and sorts my thoughts like going for a run), I am curious about movement that goes beyond this; our movement as an organisation to support people with their mental health.

 

Mental health and the people we work with

We are not specifically a mental health organisation. However, our teams need to have a high level of knowledge and skill whilst working with people who struggle with their mental health, and have likely done so for a long time. On a day to day basis our teams support people who face mental health crises. I think many people would be shocked by some of the situations our people and teams experience and how much care and compassion is shown in the most difficult of circumstances.

The Big Issue recently reported that around 80% of people who are homeless struggle with their mental health, and it is well reported that UK mainstream health and social care services normally struggle to engage with people facing multiple disadvantage; they don’t fit into the service models (which are stretched) and can be left behind with significantly poorer health outcomes than the general population. From my experience, I would struggle to identify people I have met in services who are not struggling with their mental health. It might manifest in different ways and at different intensities, but I would challenge anyone to explain how your mental health could not be impacted by the stigma, social exclusion and vulnerable circumstances faced alongside homelessness. 

 

So how do we support people with their mental health?

Whilst our mission is to tackle the causes and consequences of homelessness, this is so closely aligned to being a trauma responsive organisation; a continual journey of learning, listening and changing. This was one of the main reasons I decided to take this role, the commitment of the organisation (for quite a fair few years) to create a trauma-skilled workforce, inspired and directed by psychologically-informed and trauma-informed principles – ahead of the curve some could say. We look to understand “what happened to you” rather than “what is wrong with you”, as framed by the Power Threat Meaning Framework. We seek to understand how power and control have operated in a person’s life (including the impact of wider structural systems on a person’s wellbeing) and how they have learnt to survive this; met with no judgement, only understanding and compassion. We also hold that someone’s ability to survive demonstrates great resistance to the challenges they have faced and highlight the strengths they have. We meet people where they are at with care, consistency and transparency. We know that building trust and a safe relationship is the most important part of our work. I believe this is the foundation for creating more opportunities for people to improve their mental wellbeing, reminding people that they are deserving of care, dignity and support, with hope for creating a life that feels meaningful to them. 

 

My hopes for next steps

I feel so lucky as a Clinical Psychologist to have a space to work in this area. I have observed the impactful work that is already going on within the organisation, and I hope I can embed and influence this further. Both from a strategic level to consulting with teams day to day with the challenges they face, particularly with regards to people’s responses to trauma. I take key psychological theories and models that try to make sense of the responses and recovery from trauma (for example, Herman’s trauma recovery model) alongside therapeutic models (for example Narrative Therapy) and specific models for working with people facing multiple disadvantage (Levy’s pretreatment model & Psychologically Informed Environments) and think about how we can use this to inform our day to day work to best support and empower the people we work alongside.

Although the majority of our staff are not trained mental health professionals, we can offer people the foundations of trauma recovery and reconnection to their lives, including connecting to other services who can support them with their mental health. 

We want to help people re-write their stories, from a problem saturated storyline to something that feels empowering and hopeful. So we will continue to move forward as an organisation, alongside the people we support to do this. A journey of learning how to best reduce psychological distress and build psychological well-being.