Derbyshire Wish

Derbyshire WISH provides support to women, men and children, throughout Amber Valley and the Derbyshire Dales, who are currently or who have experienced domestic abuse. Support provided includes:

• Supported accommodation – comprising communal refuges which are able to offer accommodation to women (with or without children) only and individual dispersed accommodation where accommodation can be offered to women or men (with or without children).
• Dispersed accommodation also enables WISH to offer support to larger families, families with older male children / dependants as well as families / individuals with pets (subject to risk assessment.
• Community based support – support is provided to women or men living in the local community support can be accessed either in one to one support sessions, group work (including Freedom Programme) or drop in sessions.
• Specialist Children’s support – support is offered to children both in refuge and in the local community. Structured One to one and group support is offered to children dependant on age and assessment of need.
• Needs and risk assessment is completed with all clients accessing our support and a structured plan of support based on individual need is agreed with each client. Examples of support provided can include for example: Safety Planning; Support with finding the right place to live; support to access and liaise with other agencies (eg: specialist health support; debt management); Accessing benefits, managing budgets etc; Accessing legal services and support in attending court; Accessing health care; Finding out about and accessing community organisations; Accessing cultural and religious organisations; Accessing education, volunteering and employment.

Learning opportunities

•  Legal and policy issues relating to people with mental health issues
• Multi-disciplinary working including attendance at CPA meetings and reviews
• Anti-oppressive practice
• Advocacy skills
• Group work including Freedom Programme and Power to Change programmes and Service User involvement meetings
• Personal centred care planning , monitoring and review
• Facilitation of daily living skills including income maximisation and budgeting
• Experience of providing support to people in their own homes to enhance their independence (this will be via opportunities to shadow community based support workers)
• Experience of continuing assessment of need and risk
• Experience of advocating on behalf of service users with other service providers and organisations
• Practice within the principles of anti-discrimination, anti-oppressive practice and equal opportunities
• Service quality monitoring
• To work across other projects within the agency
• Opportunities to apply relevant theories
• Experience of working in a team within a framework of purchaser service specification/contracting, corporate and local policy
• Improving housing situations
• Enhance budgeting skills
• Supporting employment and educational opportunities
• Community outreach work
• Attendance at multi-agency meetings eg: Case Conference, Core Groups and MARAC