Housing
- Housing can be a vital aspect of recovery for people living with serious mental illness (NHS Confederation, 2022). Around 10 – 20% of people with severe mental illness develop long-term needs that impact their ability to live independently (Sanders, 2022).
- Mental health supported accommodation are services which provide support to people with mental health conditions living in community-based accommodation (Sanders, 2022). This includes shared accommodation and individual living arrangements where people are supported by on-site staff.
- Some models of community-based supported housing are associated with improved quality of life, happiness and self-esteem, reductions in symptoms of mental illness and relapse prevention (Sanders, 2022). However, there is a lack of high-quality research into supported housing.
- In Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, a housing, mental health and substance misuse toolkit was developed in 2022 to improve outcomes for people when mental health, substance use and housing issues co-occur.
- Issues around housing provision for older adults with mental health needs will be explored in the next chapter of the mental health needs assessment.
In Cambridgeshire in 2022, there were 167 units supporting people due to a primary support reason of ‘mental health’. 102 units were supported living accommodation, 56 units were residential accommodation and 9 were nursing care accommodation.
Figure 83: Units of accommodation supporting people with mental health primary support reason, Cambridgeshire, 2022. Data source: Cambridgeshire County Council Learning Disability, Autism, Mental Health and Physical Disability Specialist Accommodation Needs Assessment.
When housing demand outstrips supply, this results in either delayed discharge or sub-optimal placements using alternative sources (e.g. out of area placements or going outside of contracted arrangements). Approximately 25 sub-optimal placements are made per year in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
Additional resources
- Accommodation based support for adults with mental health conditions
- More than medicine: new services for people powered health
- More than shelter: Supported accommodation and mental health
References
Full list of references is included at the end of this chapter.