New Clinical Support Team

Background
Support at the Nelson Trust has developed and evolved over the years in response to differing needs that emerged and resulted in four different support teams; Night Support, Day Support, House Support and Resettlement Support.
By reflecting on our own experience and considering feedback from clients, we were able to identify some of the difficulties that clients face when making the transition from residential treatment to resettlement. This informed our decision to evaluate the effectiveness of ‘Support’ across the teams at Nelson Trust and explore other configurations that might better meet the needs of our client’s. A review of Support took place and a decision was made to restructure Support Services within the Trust.  The restructuring aimed to address staffing issues, provide continuity for clients and develop a more effective and streamlined support service.

The New Clinical Support Team
The Clinical Support Team started operation in the autumn of 2010. They have a new office based at Hope Mills, where the drivers are based. The dedicated medical Support Worker is based at the school, co-ordinating all client medication and medical appointments. Hope Mills is used for the Clinical Support Team weekly meeting, and daily handover mini-meetings. However, Support Workers are mainly based in their allocated treatment houses. The main function of the Clinical Support Team is to support a safe therapeutic environment and key work allocated clients, supporting them to address any lifestyle, health, financial, religious, cultural, housing and motivational issues. Support Workers are allocated to new clients as they arrive, and will continue to work with the client into resettlement and beyond.

The Main Benefits of Restructuring Support are:
• Providing continuity for clients and enough time to address clients issues from arrival
• Team work, Inclusive practice, Closer working relationships with clients and other teams
• Increase in the skill base of the team
• Single point of contact around practical issues

Feedback from clients about the new Clinical Support Team has been positive to date.