HOMESTEAD COMMUNITY NETWORKS (HCN) PROJECT

Growing Better Lives is proud to be one of the founding partners of Homestead Community Networks (HCN), a new network of therapeutic environments for people who have experienced serious mental health challenges. HOMESTEAD COMMUNITY NETWORK will fill a missing gap in the UK’s mental health infrastructure, and secure better outcomes while minimising costs. 

Each Homestead will be: 

  • Homely, safe, imaginative & enlivening 

  • Rural, suburban and urban 

  • Close to nature 

  • Beautifully crafted 

  • Sustainable 

  • Where holistic relational care gives people back hope, agency & purpose 

  • Cost savings for public purse & true value for individuals 

  • Regenerative & restorative 

  • Improving health of people & planet

Core Principles 

Each HOMESTEAD will be different but each one will be formed and run on a consistent set of Core Principles: 

  • Homeliness & closeness to nature

  • Design excellence & sustainability 

  • Productive enterprise & community interaction 

  • Affordability & access for all

The Homestead Community Network will also be a Design and Knowledge Portal; a body of accessible information; prototype designs, guidelines and standard briefs; with the purpose of promoting good design for healing environments. 

We intend to work in public-private partnership with the NHS to set new benchmarks for the design of therapeutic environments. 

We will also work with communities and the voluntary sector to ensure we nourish and support resources and projects that are already underway.

Design Paradigm (Maggie’s Centres) 

We intend the Homestead Community Network to be as significant for mental illness 

as Maggie’s Centres are for cancer care; and like Maggie’s Centres, to work in public private partnership with the NHS to set new benchmarks for designing therapeutic  environments in aid of mental wellness; for the benefit of people needing – and providing – care.

Why Homestead? 

  • In the midst of a mounting mental health crisis, the UK’s inpatient psychiatric care system is buckling under the strain. Billions are spent on inpatient services that sometimes do more harm than good & take a heavy toll on healthcare staff 

  • There are safety & quality concerns in some settings - and some people are excluded from meaningful help 

  • Despite the ongoing transformation of mental health services and growing emphasis on keeping individuals within their communities and out of hospital settings, there is still a significant gap in providing adequate support 

  • Few places across the UK can offer safe, structured environments that serve as a buffer between hospital and independent living. Those places that do exist are often for people with learning disabilities or on an offender pathway, or specialist settings run by private healthcare providers 

  • The HOMESTEAD COMMUNITY NETWORK aims to fill this gap. We aim to slash costs from the public purse and also improve outcomes - enhancing wellbeing, boosting health capacities, and lessening the likelihood of relapse and hospital readmission 

  • The hallmark of HCN projects will be the healing and growth that is possible through relationships which establish a sense of belonging, safety, openness, inclusion and empowerment - restoring hope & wellness, and trust that has been eroded

Social architecture: building our therapeutic philosophy 

  • Our model is informed by a radical therapeutic approach with a long and venerable history, underpinned by understanding and using relationships 

  • This includes all relationships between staff and residents, staff and staff, residents and residents - and all between-group relations 

  • Residents recover through relationships and reconnecting with themselves, each other, the wider community and the natural world 

  • All members of the communities are heard and treated with respect whatever their role, gender, age, sexuality, ethnicity, religious belief or physical characteristics 

  • Use of medication is by informed choice. The most up-to-date techniques of deprescribing and tapering will be used for withdrawal wherever appropriate 

  • We support people to find meaning in their difficult experiences, learning how to live well with difficult mind states, grow inner resources, build skills & reclaim healthy futures 

  • No coercive interventions are made 

  • All aspects of the services are co-produced: programme design, policies, leadership and management. We will support individuals to identify networks of support with family, friends and the wider community, in the spirit of Open Dialogue 

  • It is anticipated that breakdown of relationships requiring detention under the Mental Health Act will be rare. When unavoidable, we will minimise harm by developing trusting and transparent working relationships with local statutory services

Individual, Service and Social Impacts 

Individuals 

  • Increased engagement and participation 

  • More sense of responsibility and personal agency 

  • Reduced hospitalisation and health service use 

  • Reduced incidents and preventable deaths 

Staff 

  • Reduced staff burnout, presenteeism, sick leave and grievances 

  • Less critical incidents 

  • Better retention and staff satisfaction 

System 

  • Less 'revolving door' admissions 

  • Improved mental health management 

  • Improved communication between agencies

For more information, or to be involved with the project and become one of our partners and friends, please contact us at: info@homestead.org.uk