Working In Communities Intervention A Project Of Social And Community Work Intervention

The ‘Oneness Organisation’ is a non-profitable charity institution that was established in 2010 after a group of three individuals came together to establish a onetime initiative that was designed to provide care and support to the youths and adults in London. Today, the organisation which has its headquarters in London Borough of Hounslow is the largest and most active non-profitable charity organisation in London. They currently offer care and support services to more than 30,000 individuals every month in Hounslow. Their mission is to utilise informal education curricula to inspire and empower young generations across time to realise their wellbeing and potentials in life. The organisation is operated through a non-profit multipurpose management program which is governed by a board of 8 members and a C.E.O. The organisation offers a variety of programs which include; providing informal educational needs, crisis interventions, psychological therapy interventions, employment training services and volunteerism/social services to the community.

Social support remains an everyday occurrence that is extensive. The intervention that the organisation will be providing to the vulnerable and at-risk community to enable inclusion and empowerment will require extensive support in terms of financial aids and resource accumulation. Gray & Gibbons (2002) identify that the development of social work such as the one that the organisation intends to provide must stem from a strength-based as opposed to a needs-based strategy. The strength herein is the financial and resource support that the organisation will need to provide social and informal education to enable inclusion and empowerment for the vulnerable and at risk.

The support needs will include emotional [nurturance], companionship [establishing a sense of belonging amongst the vulnerable and at-risk groups] and tangible [monetary assistances]. The above-mentioned needs will be essential in feeling the gaps of support needs within the identified project group. According to Talmage & Knopf (2017), inclusive programs are fundamentally integral in providing equal experiences and enhancing the wellbeing of every individual. The project will thus ensure that the emotional and companionship needs are satisfactorily met. The strategy will ensure that the vulnerable and at-risk population such as the youths and adults who are addicted to substance abuse or those with varying disabilities are all considered in the project. For most forms of engagement, the following list of specific resources will be required; Communication and promotion, venue hire, transport, childcare, translation; staff and volunteer inputs; monetary facilitation and background information on the target groups to validate the population designed to benefit from the project.

Work Plan (Aims & Objectives)

The project will be implemented for two months within local clubs and schools during the long holidays. It will be conducted in shifts that will involve different groups from the community. After defining the project and appointing the team that will oversee implementation, we will be aiming to initiate into the next phase which will include the project management life cycle. The phase will be the core of the project which will involve defining functions, defining the project’s deliverables and requirements and most importantly, developing a performance schedule. The performance schedule will be quite broad due to the range of tasks and competence levels we will be aiming to achieve.

Fore mostly, this project will be aiming to provide social and informal education to enable inclusion and empowerment for the vulnerable and at-risk within the community at Hounslow London. The intervention plan will involve mental health education, the significance of embracing inclusivity within the community and civic education on substance abuse. The target population for the exercise will include 1200 youths and adults. The youths and adults will be between ages 15 – 35 years. The methods of engagement will have to be fit for purpose in terms of age and vulnerability. The methods or strategies of implementation will involve approaches at managing risks and keeping track of the whole project to diminish inefficiency.

Expected Results

This project aims to settle on the most appropriate activities and implementation plans to realise its objectives. The fundamental outcomes that the project aims to realise include; reduced stigmatisation of the mentally challenged in the community, reduced rates of drug abuse and enhanced skills among the target population which can help them secure jobs and eventually improves their wellbeing.

Main Body

Project design

According to WHO, it is reported that nearly 2/3 rd of the population affected by mental illness or disability would avoid to seek healthcare services from professionals due to presence of stigma, discrimination and neglect (hounslow.gov.uk, 2020). In London Borough of Hounslow, it is reported that 17% of the adult population are suffering from common mental health issues and there are more than 1000 residents present in the area who have learning disability (hounslow.gov.uk, 2020; hounslowccg.nhs.uk, 2017). This informs that there are many people present in the area who have mental disability or suffering illness. The statistics of 2015 informed that 43% of the referral made to the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) in Hounslow ensured reliable recovery following the treatment being completed (hounslowccg.nhs.uk, 2017). This informs that nearly half of the population in the Hounslow with mental disability and illness are still unable to ensure effective recovery as result of lack of completion of treatment procedure.

The Social Model of Disability informs that disability is caused among the people according to the way society is organised rather than the physical or mental impairment of the person. The model focuses on removing barriers which are causing restriction to the disabled people to make life choices (Levitt, 2017). This informs that the existence of stigma and discrimination regarding mental illness and disability in Hounslow may have created issues among the people to complete or access mental healthcare services to ensure proper recovery. Thus, the development of this project is essential so that through delivery of effective education and information regarding mental illness and disability more people from the area.

In Hounslow, it is mentioned that nearly 14% of the adults within the population are involved in smoking and more than 48,000 adults are involved in intake of alcohol (hounslowccg.nhs.uk, 2017). According to a study conducted by Ross & Peselow (2012), scholars identify that most persons who tend to develop substance use disorders are mostly diagnosed with mental illnesses and vice versa. The Disease Theory of Addiction informs that addiction to illicit substances or drugs is due to neurological, environmental, genetic and biological factors. The environmental factors for drug addiction often include childhood trauma, low parental involvement, previous experience with drugs and others. The neurological factors for mental illness and disability include depression, stress, epilepsy and others (Berridge, 2017). The meta-analysis conducted by Hser et al (2001) revealed that chronic use of some drugs ultimately leads to serious mental health challenges such as aggression, anxiety, depression, and hallucinations. Thus, it informs that substance use and mental illness are related to one another as mentioned in the disease theory. Therefore, in this project the key concern is to determine the way the youths and adults are to be managed in the community so that their lives can be improved.

The aim of this project is thus to conduct a comprehensive task that will incorporate social and informal education to provide awareness of mental health stigma and how much drug abuse is linked to mental health. We believe that with enough awareness on the issue, we will be able to realise the inclusion and empowerment of the vulnerable population which are the youths. Cases on stigmatisation, discrimination, and insights about individuals who abuse drugs or have already developed mental illness from drug abuse will significantly reduce after the exercise. According to Ross & Peselow (2012), most mental health issues often begin from the age of 14 years and could go on for ages before being detected. Furthermore, Hser et al (2001) point out that the consequences of not addressing mental issues could result in impaired physical wellbeing and limited opportunities to fulfil one’s potentials in life. This project thus aimed to largely focus on youths who are between 15 – 35 years and determine how social and informal education could not only create awareness amongst themselves, but also the larger community and particularly their peers to support them through their challenges.

Basically, the study aims to conduct educative forums in two different sessions. The first sessions will include creating awareness amongst drug abusers and those who are suffering from mental health on why they need to adjust their ways of life and seek therapy treatments. The other session will focus on the outright community of a similar age group and create awareness on why individuals with mental health challenges must be approached with caution, love, and affection to promote inclusivity. The study will thus be having two key objectives; empowering youths through social and informal education to alleviate drug abuse cases that are related to a high prevalence of mental issues and promote inclusivity in the community by creating awareness on the effects of stigmatisation of individuals with mental health issues.

The project will also develop a detailed budget which will aim to guide it through the two months. The organisation expects to also recruit additional staff, some who will be paid for their services while others will serve on a voluntary scheme. The total budget expenditure for the whole exercise is projected to be £500,000. The budgetary allocation is broken down below.

Project Development

The project development is to be made based on the Reform Model. The Reform model informs that the socio-environmental conditions vary and the way they impact the people are different. Thus, the model informs that society is required to ensure equal opportunity is provided to offer assistance to people; need to remove disadvantages; identify, enable, develop, promote and encourage people to create change in behaviour (Guerrero et al. 2017). Therefore, during the development of the project it is to be ensured that equal opportunity to the target group is provided to make them use the services planned to be delivered through the project. Moreover, the disadvantages to be the faced by the target group in accessing the services of the project are also to be resolved to ensure proper reform in their behaviour is established regarding substance use to ensure their well-being.

The report and its recommendations were handed over to key stakeholders such as the mayor Tony Louki, the Council leader Steve Curran, representatives of local businesses, voluntary scheme groups within the community and faith groups including churches. The wide-ranging stakeholders will be engaging the recommendations we brought up within the report to help the organisation secure potential sponsors that will enable us to facilitate this activity.

The type of services we will be offering as an organisation will be extensive. Most importantly, we will be focusing on utilising formal and social education to spread awareness into the effects of drug abuse and highlight its potential linkages to mental health issues. The services we shall be offering thus include;

• Intensive therapy sessions including specialized psychotherapy.
• Awareness campaigns
• Community Counseling
• Entrepreneurship training [providing basic training skills that could enhance employment].

Style of Delivery

The learning style to be used in delivery of information in the project is pragmatist. The pragmatist learning style is referred to the approach in which real-life conditions and information are considered to deal with issues rather than focussing on abstract principles or theoretical underpinnings (Bhalli, Khan & Sattar, 2016). Thus, the style of delivery of information through the project is to be made by considered individuals based on real-life condition and avoid inclusion of theoretical aspects. The team which includes a project director, Grant coordinator and clinical director will all work harmoniously in ensuring all services and intended objectives are effectively executed. The project will be seeking to involve 236 qualified personnel to deliver on the task. For the target group which is the community and the vulnerable groups, the organisation will be hoping to realise certain outcomes after the exercise. For the community, there will be more aware of mental issues, how to detect and adequately respond to individuals with mental health issues. For the vulnerable population, the project aims to realise reduced rates of substance abuse and acquisition of entrepreneurial skills which will facilitate either self-employment or increase their chances of getting a job that will ultimately promote their wellbeing.

Monitoring & Evaluation

Monitoring and Evaluation of the activity referred to a process of using certain indicators to assess the activity’s ongoing achievements in relation to clearly defined objectives. The first approach that the project will incorporate in M&E is to identify and set our program goals and objectives. After establishing our objectives which should be performed within 60 days or two months, the task force will then define indicators. The task will incorporate objectively verifiable indicators. For instance, our target is to attend to 1200 youths and adults within two months. Objectively, the activity should have counselled 700 youths and adults by week three, trained 850 of them on entrepreneurial skills by week 4 and conducted counselling on the whole community on how to handle mental illness by week 6. The organisation will also develop qualitative indicators throughout the activity to determine how the community is receiving our project i.e. their perception of the whole exercise and general feedback from the community. To ensure that the M&E exercise runs smoothly throughout the exercise, the project team will assign explicit responsibilities to particular persons to collect and evaluate information on the whole exercise.

Challenges

From its inception, the project expects to counter some serious challenges that may impact its outcome. Some of the potential challenges may include; ensuring teams operate on the same page throughout, failing to meet the set deadline, poorly defined goals and objectives, insufficient funds and disappointing outcomes in some aspects of the exercise.

References

• Berridge, K.C., (2017). Is addiction a brain disease?. Neuroethics, 10(1), 29-33.
• Bhalli, M.A., Khan, I.A. and Sattar, A., (2016). Learning style of medical students and its correlation with preferred teaching methodologies and academic achievement. Journal of Ayub Medical College Abbottabad, 27(4), pp.837-842.
• Gray, M., & Gibbons, J. (2002). Experience based learning and its relevance to social work practice. Australian Social Work, 55(4), 279-291.
• Guerrero, E.G., Harris, L., Padwa, H., Vega, W.A. and Palinkas, L., (2017). Expected impact of health care reform on the organization and service delivery of publicly funded addiction health services. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 44(4), pp.463-469.
• hounslow.gov.uk 2020, Adult mental health – JSNA, Retrieved on 1st February 2020 from: https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/info/20124/health_conditions/1566/adult_mental_health_-_jsna
• hounslowccg.nhs.uk 2017, Hounslow CCG Annual Equality report 2017, Retrieved on 1st February 2020 from: https://www.hounslowccg.nhs.uk/media/102707/Annual-Equality-Report-2017-Hounslow-CCG-Final.pdf
• Hser, Y. I., Grella, C. E., Hubbard, R. L., Hsieh, S. C., Fletcher, B. W., Brown, B. S., & Anglin, M. D. (2001). An evaluation of drug treatments for adolescents in 4 US cities. Archives of General Psychiatry, 58(7), 689-695.
• Levitt, J.M., (2017). Exploring how the social model of disability can be re-invigorated: in response to Mike Oliver. Disability & Society, 32(4),589-594.
• Ross, S., & Peselow, E. (2012). Co-occurring psychotic and addictive disorders: neurobiology and diagnosis. Clinical neuropharmacology, 35(5), 235-243. doi:10.1097/WNF.0b013e318261e193.
• Talmage, C., & Knopf, R. C. (2017). Rethinking diversity, inclusion, and inclusiveness: The quest to better understand indicators of community enrichment and well-being. In New Dimensions in community Well-Being (pp. 7-27). Springer, Cham.
• Zall, K, & Rist, R. (2004). Ten steps to a results-based monitoring and evaluation system: a handbook for development practitioners. The World Bank.