Crime & Community Safety Services which can be commissioned from Northumberland Support & Advice Service
Victims of crime often
need support to help them recover and lead a normal life once more. Whether they have been victims of violent crimes, including sexual assault and domestic abuse, or have suffered from the pernicious effects of anti-social behaviour, victims need help to be able to move on and return to productive life. Offenders, particularly female offenders, may also need help and support to turn them away from their involvement in crime.
Northumberland Support & Advice Service (NSAS) provides support to women, men and young people (aged 14 and above) who require emotional and/or practical support to address the longer term effects of crime - either as victims or as prepetrators. These effects may include depression, isolation, self harm and even suicidal thoughts. NSAS creates individual packages of support which cater for individual needs, whether this is counselling or psychotherapy, one-to-one practical support or a combination of both.
Professionals who work with victims may also need support. NSAS can provide staff with the right tools so they can help people effectively. We can also support them with any issues of their own which may arise as a consequence of working with victims with complex needs. With some investment in a support service, the benefits to the individual, the community and the organisation can far outweigh the costs. This briefing outlines our offer of services to commissioners, which incorporates: •• •• ••
Counselling and psychotherapy Individual support addressing complex problems and practical needs Professional mentoring and training for staff or volunteers in organisations who are in regular contact with and provide support to victims of crime
We design flexible packages of support, which may incorporate one or more of these three elements. All packages include initial assessment, impact monitoring and reporting. In this way, you are able to determine the most suitable support for the individual, have a clear understanding of costs, as well as receiving a report on the impact of our intervention. For more information contact:
Cath Carnaby, Manager Northumberland Support & Advice Service 1 Council Road Ashington Northumberland NE63 8RZ Tel: 01670 858984 Email: NSAS@whac.uk.com Web: www.NSAS-NE.co.uk
Crime and Community Safety
Counselling and psychotherapy
We have a dedicated team of qualified counsellors and psychotherapists who provide services to people with a number of issues, ranging from poor mental health, relationship problems and domestic/sexual violence – see the following graph.
Issues dealt with in counselling, 1998 to 2012
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900
600
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alt h ion Se ship lf e s ste e m Be rea Do vem me en stic vio t len ce Su icid Se a xu al a l bu se Wo rk/ fi na Ph n ysi cal ce he Eat alt ing h dis ord ers An ge Ab r ort ion
300
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Address depression and anxiety - we help people recover from the chronic and disabling effects of depression and anxiety. Many problems stem from poor mental health; relationships, employment and health are all put at risk. People may become depressed for many reasons but the effects are the same – inability to maintain friendship, stay at or look for work, start or increase their prescription medication. They may also self harm and develop physical health problems. These problems can lead to suicide or attempted suicide, which we often see in our clients and something that sadly seems to be on the increase. We have a proven track record at helping people recover from these effects with our support.
We are committed to excellence: our counselling is governed by British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) Standards, we monitor impact using medical standard models and use the Social Impact Tracker and bespoke methods to monitor impact on individuals. We also commission independent external evaluators to regularly measure impact.
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Reduce isolation and loneliness - we support people to overcome their isolation and return to a full productive life. Many people’s problems result in self isolation, staying in the house and rarely going out. This can become a self perpetuating cycle resulting in panic attacks and anxiety. Both physical and mental health are affected and without careful and directed support the consequences of this isolation and loneliness can become severe.
NSAS has expertise based on over 25 years of practice in Northumberland, delivering services to people in need of support and guidance. We have provided counselling to over 2500 clients and Individual Support to over 5000 people. We have also delivered issuebased specialist training to organisations across Northumberland to help them support their clients more effectively.
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Domestic and sexual violence - we help people recover from Intimate Partner Abuse, rape and childhood sexual abuse. We provide specialist emotional and practical support, through counselling and Individual Support, to both women and men who are victims of violence and abuse. Without support to enable survivors to recover from trauma caused by domestic and sexual violence, the effects on individuals can be highly destructive and people may never be able to fully participate in society. We see many people each year who have suffered such abuse and help them to recover and become whole people once more.
Our expertise and services
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Recover from trauma - we assist people to become survivors of crime rather than victims and help them feel better about themselves. By improving people’s confidence and sense of well being, we get people ‘back on track’, helping them achieve and enjoy life once again. We focus on the whole person to make people more confident and healthier. This can take a number of forms, including counselling, practical one-to-one support or group work. These benefits are felt by individuals and families and the services that they access.
Make people work ready - we help people prepare for or stay at work. We do this by giving them strategies to deal with the issues/barriers that prevent them from working. These can include low self esteem and self confidence, depression, self image problems and other mental health problems. We help people get back to work following sick leave, ready to look for work again after long periods of unemployment and ready to rejoin and enjoy community life.
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What do our services do?
Crime and Community Safety All our counsellors have gone through a rigorous recruitment and selection process and have completed our NCFE accredited training programme. All counsellors work within the ethical framework set out by the BACP and psychotherapists within that of the Northern Guild of Psychotherapists. Counselling consists of eight sessions. The first is an assessment which determines the appropriate counselling model to follow, the last includes a review and evaluation to ascertain if outcomes have been met or if further sessions may be required. Psychotherapy is offered to clients who require longer term therapies for more entrenched issues, although still offered in blocks of eight sessions. Counselling and psychotherapy is delivered in comfortable settings for one hour each week by trained counsellors.
Individual Support
NSAS provides Individual Support to people who are experiencing a range of lifestyle and issuebased problems. This can be individual, group or tailored support around issues such as anger, anxiety, confidence and self esteem and healthy eating. This one-to-one support is aimed at people with often complex problems that need more personalised and intensive support to get them to the point of recovery, or where they feel they can lead a more fulfilling life. Not everybody will require counselling and Individual Support is more appropriate for some to enable them to recover. However, through the Individual Support, it may become clear that they will benefit from counselling, which we then can provide. The Individual Support is tailored to the needs of each individual. It may consist of a professional mentoring and advocacy service where one of our staff will spend time with the individual helping them to sort through their personal and practical problems, such as emotional issues, housing, and debt. It may mean helping the individual move on through participation in one of our many courses which prepare people for a return to a productive and happy life. Popular courses include building confidence and self esteem, and anger and stress management. It may mean helping the individual make connections and join in with other community activities and it may often mean combinations of all of the above. We will broker in outside specialist support if it is necessary.
Professional mentoring and training
We provide professional mentoring and training to organisations who are in regular contact with people experiencing issue-based and lifestyle problems. Often staff within organisations may lack some skills or may not have the appropriate levels of support they need when working with more vulnerable people. We can help those staff by providing a mentoring service, giving them the tools to be able to work with vulnerable people and help them with their own emotional issues that may develop as a consequence of that work. This support can be either time limited or ongoing. We also provide training to organisations to help them develop their expertise around working with vulnerable people. We have provided organisational training on boundary issues between staff and clients, health and well being at work, self harm and suicide awareness.
Our offer
Initial Assessment Upon your referral, the client will attend an initial assessment which will identify their needs and the services/interventions from which they may benefit. Based on this assessment we will create a Support Plan detailing our recommendations for support and the time frame involved. From this you can choose which services/interventions you want us to provide. This will form a key part of the contract between yourself and NSAS. Impact monitoring In every case, we will monitor the impact of the intervention which starts from the baseline produced in the Initial Assessment. We will measure our impact and report to you the progress that the client has made. We will use standard and bespoke measurements which include the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Health and Well Being Scale and the Social Impact Tracker. From this you will be able to see the distance travelled and gauge value for money. Counselling and psychotherapy Our counselling offer consists of a minimum block of eight one hour counselling sessions. After this block, using our impact monitoring tools, we will be able to report the level of progress made by the client. Additional sessions can be booked on an individual basis or another block can be purchased. Psychotherapy tends to take place over a longer
period, but will also start with a block of eight sessions.
Crime and Community Safety
Individual Support Individual Support is provided by a NSAS Mentor and is tailor made to suit the needs of the individual client. A Support Plan is based on the Initial Assessment and generally consists of a number of hours contact time over several weeks. Progress is reviewed by our impact monitoring procedure. Based on the Initial Assessment, we will recommend the number of hours support that is required. Professional mentoring and training We offer mentoring and training to professionals who deal with people with lifestyle or issue-based problems. The mentoring and training can be delivered to groups or individuals, either as singular issue-based sessions, such as how to maintain boundaries between staff and clients, or over a longer period if mentoring is required, for example if a staff member is working in a pressured environment dealing with challenging clients. We will develop a mentoring and training programme designed specifically for your needs.
The organisation, staff and capability
NSAS is a project of the Women’s Health Advice Centre who have a long track record in providing support to local people and organisations in Northumberland. We are governed by a board of directors who
have sector specialisms in: community development and engagement, education, employability, family law, finance, health, housing, mental health and regeneration. Our Manager oversees a staff contingent of 30 full and part time staff. Our headquarters is in Ashington but we provide services on an outreach basis, ensuring that they are available across the county. This may be through a range of local venues organised by us or together with partners with whom we have a contract and agreed service delivery arrangements.
Other services
We also provide services for those clients in need of support in the fields of: Employability, Housing, Health and Wellbeing and Young People – contact us to find out more. Northumberland Support & Advice Service 1 Council Road Ashington Northumberland NE63 8RZ Tel: 01670 858984 Email: NSAS@whac.uk.com Web: www.NSAS-NE.co.uk Charity number: 1119121