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Archived Press Release
Originally created on: Friday 23 March, 2007
press release 23 March 2007
New website to help homelessness workers
A new website for professionals working with the city’s homeless will be launched next Wednesday 28 March between 12.30 and 3pm at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, Brighton.
www.mortarnet.org.uk has been developed by Brighton & Hove City council’s Psychology Team for the homeless, with the aim of helping individuals and agencies involved in a supporting role with homeless people.
The Psychology Team was set up a year ago as a joint initiative with the council’s housing strategy division and the Sussex Partnership NHS Trust to reduce the problem of repeat homelessness. Councillor Simon Burgess, Leader of the City Council, knows that, “Emotional and psychological issues play a significant role in the complex variety of reasons for homelessness, and particularly the problem of chronic homelessness and rough sleeping.”, he continues, ”The Psychology Team have quickly become a valuable resource in the combined local effort to improve the lives of homeless people, many of whom have experienced profound difficulties resettling into the community, sadly finding themselves repeating patterns of behaviour that lead back to homelessness, despite their best hopes.”
Clinical Psychologist, Dr Vicky House, who manages the team of four, says, “We want to offer support and good practice guidance to all frontline staff dealing with the problem of homelessness throughout Brighton & Hove. The website will bring together ideas and examples of good practice to help people cope with distress, solve problems and address unhelpful behaviours – all well known barriers to tenants retaining their own accommodation.
The website will also act as a forum for frontline staff from different organisations to share ideas, experiences and information with each other to continue improving good practice, as well as providing easy access on-line communication with our Team.”
Special Guest Speakers at the website launch will include, Helen Keats MBE, Specialist Policy Advisor on Homelessness from the Department of Communities and Local Government, Dr Philip Dodgson, Associate Director of Psychology and Psychological Therapies of the Sussex Partnership NHS Trust, Ruth Robertson, Manager of Chris Batten House, Hove YMCA and Councillor Simon Burgess, the Leader of Brighton & Hove City Council.
Dr Dodgson said, “This is a brilliant development. Sussex Partnership Trust has welcomed this opportunity to work in partnership with Brighton and Hove City Council. The provision of psychological skills in the heart of the community is really important and the website is one element of a mosaic of approaches the psychology team will be using to help reduce repeat homelessness.”
Guidance on www.mortarnet.org.uk is based on the views of local service users, frontline staff and published research about meeting the support needs of local homeless people and it draws on strategies and techniques from well established psychological models such as CBT, (cognitive behavioural therapy), systemic therapy and the motivational enhancement approach.
Dr Vicky House explained, “Mortar is the key word for this website,
As with the bricks and mortar of a building, the website will help to underpin the vital work of professionals and organisations working with the city’s homeless”
For further information about the work of the psychology team or about www.mortarnet.org.uk contact Dr Vicky House on 01273 291125 or email homelesspsychology@brighton-hove.gov.uk.
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