Gdas Complex Needs Assertive Outreach Practitioner X2

**Background and service**:
GDAS are recruiting for roles to join our new service within HSG Complex Needs Service working in partnership with Newport City Council’s Housing Team.

The Complex Needs Team seeks to achieve the objectives set out in The Welsh Government’s Substance Misuse Delivery Plan including and Housing Strategy:

- Ensure services commissioned to support co-occurring cases are aligned and working in partnership with housing and homelessness services.
- Seek to co-locate services with local authority housing teams where appropriate, in order to provide a more person-centred service to those who are either homeless or at threat of homelessness.
- In order to adopt a preventative approach, develop protocols with social housing and private sector landlords to help identify tenants who may be in need of substance misuse services, to engage them on outreach provision and to support those at risk of homelessness.
- Develop referral pathways between rough sleeping outreach teams and local authority housing teams to residential rehabilitation units. This should include referral pathways from Housing First projects.
- To work with partners to ensure services are accessible for all and that outreach services are available to those who are isolated due to their substance misuse issues, particularly older people.

The AO team provides the support needed to prevent people with substance use and other complex needs from becoming homeless, stabilising their housing situation, or helps

potentially homeless people to find and keep accommodation. It supports vulnerable people to address multiple complex needs such as debt, employment, tenancy management, substance misuse, violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence and mental health issues.

Support is person centred, aimed at supporting people to secure and maintain sustainable housing by addressing the mental health and substance misuse or other problems they face, helping to improve their health and well-being and/or helping them progress into, or nearer to, a job or training opportunity based on their specific circumstances.

The AO team provides rapid, flexible and responsive approaches to engage and support this cohort, including the offer of support at times and venues that is favourable for the individual, increasing the capacity and ability of individuals or households to prevent homelessness, maintain a home or enabling access to suitable housing for individuals or households.

One of our central functions as a team is to broker access to other services for people in housing need, navigating systems and advocating assertively where there are barriers to access or support.

**Role Purpose**:
Under supervision of the Assertive Outreach Team Leader and Complex Needs Service Manager, the post holder will work as part of the multi-disciplinary Complex Needs Team and report directly to the HSG Co-Ordinator to support the delivery of recovery care plans for clients with a range of mental health, substance misuse presentations and housing needs in the community and facilitating appointments in the community and signposting.

This will include targeted wrap around substance misuse support that seeks to prevent homelessness and maintain accommodation. They will be vital in liaising with professionals; ensuring substance misuse and other appointments are flexible to need and providing harm reduction advice, brief interventions and signposting into voluntary and statutory substance misuse services according to need.

They will have working knowledge and experience of both drug and alcohol detoxification and treatment programmes with an understanding of holistic aspects of care. They will have experience with service users who have mental health and co-occurring substance misuse difficulties to provide the speediest, most effective facilitation to connect with the services they may need.

The post-holder will work directly with service users with complex needs across the area. The main aim of the role is to engage with these individuals, identify barriers and work with them towards maintaining a tenancy. The post holder will support the delivery of community based mental health, substance misuse and housing support services within across the area.

They will work closely and in partnership with the other elements of the service including specialist mental health, substance misuse services and housing in the borough. They will support the Assertive Outreach Manager in developing links between services that ensure service users with complex needs access the full range of care and treatment services to meet their needs.

A further key role will be for the post holder to be part of the team supporting a caseload of dual diagnosis/complex needs service users under the support of the Assertive Outreach Manager. This post will involve linking with partnership agencies e.g. mental health services, substance misuse services and housing initiatives.

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