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• Somewhere House

Student Placement at Somewhere House

I am currently attending placement at Somewhere house, as a student on behalf of Weston college. I am a second year Health and Social care student, about to go to university to start my degree as an Adult Nurse.

I have had many placements on behalf of the college ranging from working with Southmead hospital, general care homes and the YMCA. However, my placement with Somewhere house has been the most intriguing to me. Somewhere House has had an emphasis on mental health more so than any other health and social care setting that I have worked in. Everyday I attend, I see a constant encouragement on self care, empowerment of the service users and promoting the independence of the individual; but they are never shy to lend a helping hand when asked for. This is where the staff support the clients and they offer help and assistance when they might be having a bad day, or just need someone to talk to- this is something in which I think reflects well on their use of 1-2-1's and group sessions, encouraging the individuals to speak about how their feeling to be able to promote the best recovery the individual can experience.

From the moment I walked in the house for an interview, I felt a warm environment from staff and residents of the house; everyone has been so welcoming and warm. There has been a different "hello" in every room, greeted by people who are genuinely intrigued by you as an individual. The level of support that I have seen between worker and client has been like none other, with genuine care about the client's recovery, you can see the passion behind all of their work. They genuinely care about the individual's recovery. Furthermore, there has been an encouragement within this house to ensure that client's help each other in their journey, which is an amazing way to teach the individuals to not rely on services, after their time working with the home.

The rehabilitation of individual's is also supported through the use of 'homework', which works as the individuals having a self reflection to becoming more open minded about their recovery. There are examples of the home going above and beyond during the recovery, which is where they offer therapies in order to promote recovery, which includes family therapies and art therapies. Art therapy has been shown as an effective way, especially within Somewhere house; this is where the individuals explore self expression through the use of art. In addition to the use of homework's, art therapy helps the individuals to process their emotions and also be able to express them properly. Even though this is a simple technique, this is just one of the ways the home, for me, points towards positive care.

There is also the use of family therapy within the home, which can help if one of the reasons for addiction has been due to toxic relationships, or the addiction has caused a toxic relationship. Family therapy is something in which has been proved effective to help the clients of Somewhere house to be able to understand why there might be addiction problems, but can also help to resolve these problems. Yet again, this is another example of how the home helps to promote health and wellbeing within their service.

The support here is endless, one of the main aims of the organisation is to promote mental health and wellbeing. This is through simple activities such as offering evening walks along the beach and surrounding areas of the home, trips to the cinema at the weekend and individuals also have the opportunity to be able to choose whether or not they would like to join the gym. Working to improve the health and wellbeing of the individuals has been shown to be one of the most important things within the home and the clients are encouraged to attend these and participate with individuals who are also going through the same process.

During their time here, the clients also have to attend voluntary work. Which is something amazing because not only is this giving back to the community, but it is also helping the individuals slowly go back to a positive role within the community. Voluntary work within the home has also shown a positive change within the client's here, where you can visibly see a more positive and happier individual; after beginning to attend voluntary work. This is something that I believe to be really positive for the individuals who are attending the home because it is showing the beginning of giving them back some responsibility.

Furthermore, what surprises me the most is the further support of health and wellbeing can be shown through staff helping to book doctors appointments- in order to help with medication, if needing weening off or any other health problems that may occur. Support with booking dentist appointments and to be able to manage these, so that individual's don't forget and feel supported during their time here. There is also support with the sorting of finances, with dedicated team members who have solid understanding of how benefits work and how best to support these individuals in terms of their finances and what they are entitled too. This is especially helpful as applying for Universal credits can sometimes be a tiring and confusing process.

Sinead Evans

June 2019