The Society of St James offers guidance and support to clients across Hampshire and our services. With the main support teams being in Portsmouth and Southampton our mental health teams empower people to make positive change. Our team consist of clinical psychologists and mental health support workers who are passionate about providing quality, one to one support.

We use a trauma informed approach in order to facilitate long lasting change. SSJ work with individuals who are hard to reach and struggle to access mainstream services. At the Society of St James we bring psychology into the workplace to help support staff, teams and clients through individual sessions, group training, and reflective practice. This helps create a healthy and happy work environment.

Our Mental Health support service promotes self-confidence. This enables clients to build and maintain positive relationships, as well as develop resilience and emotional regulation. We help clients decide for themselves to take steps to change engaging in talks and rehab. Also, offering guidance to ultimately find a job and rebuild independence.

Mental health and Homelessness

There is a lot of links between poor mental health and homelessness:

Conditions like depression and anxiety can make it harder to maintain housing. Homelessness itself often worsens mental health. Many individuals have experienced abuse, neglect, or significant life events. This means mental health support needs to be trauma-informed. Some people use drugs or alcohol to cope with mental distress, which can create a cycle that’s hard to break without proper support. People experiencing homelessness are much more likely to struggle with mental health issues.

Key facts about our service:

• Our mental health and wellbeing team have a total of 130 plus clients alongside 9 members of staff.
• The team operates throughout the supported housing pathway covering a variety of different projects within SSJ.
• The team will follow clients that have moved on from their accommodation to help support the smooth transition.
• Staff will provide support during a crisis, provide intervention and signpost where needed. And give that listening ear making the client feel heard and supported.
• In the last 3 months 256 1:1 sessions were attended.
• Within the last 3 months The Mental Health and Wellbeing team have worked alongside projects to enable 39 Clients to retain their accommodation.

Our main focus:

The main focus of the service is to provide emotional support and reassurance to navigate change or overcome difficult events; seek to reduce anti-social behaviour and assist individuals to learn and develop coping skills to manage their mental wellbeing. The service will aim reduce anxieties and equip them for independence; build relationships and trust with the overarching aim of minimising mental health crisis and strain on emergency services.

The team identify positive change and signpost clients to relevant agencies offering mental health wellbeing support, mindfulness and activities; and increase level of engagement with mental health services and partnered agencies.

Our service is committed to providing mental health and wellbeing support that is grounded in key values essential to effective and compassionate practice, collaboration and respect. Our support is based on a holistic and person-centred approach, guided by trauma informed care, unconditional positive regard focusing on what works and working together to make our clients lived experiences valuable.