Sheltered residents to receive needs-based support
04 Apr 2008
Residents at Merlin Housing Society’s sheltered schemes are to benefit from a new service which will tailor support to their individual needs.
After a year-long investigation the not-for-profit organisation has today announced a change to the way it provides support to the 1,300 residents in its 51 sheltered schemes in South Gloucestershire. The revamped service will enable Merlin to provide more support to those with the greatest need.
As a result of Merlin’s review, over the coming months the organisation will change to a new system of providing support to sheltered residents. Teams of support advisors will be based at eight regional hubs, from where they will travel out to the sheltered schemes in their area to deliver bespoke support to individuals.
Support advisors will spend most of their time at the sheltered schemes providing support to residents. And at many schemes the support advisor will be the same person who currently looks after residents.
Chief executive Ian Matthews said: “We believe that this change will be beneficial to residents as we will be able to tailor our support to their individual needs.
“At the moment we are operating a one-size-fits-all approach which is not sustainable. It is inflexible to the needs of our residents and takes no account of whether they require different levels of support. This new service will provide better standards of care to residents, especially those who have high support needs.
“As an individual’s needs change over time, we can change the level of support they receive.
“Ultimately our goal is to provide a support service not just to residents of our sheltered schemes, but also to other tenants and the wider community as well.”
Staff at the sheltered schemes are now being consulted about the changes. The new service is due to be launched on 1 October.