Aftercare
Making Life Work is CDP’s Aftercare provision. It is based on a needs assessment that includes relapse/risk management strategies.
The following factors are considered:
- Daytime activities/employment
- Appropriate accommodation
- Additional specialist counselling
- Personal support networks
- Welfare rights assistance
- Social security arrangements
- Risk/relapse plans
- Unmet needs
- Client’s own wishes
- The views of significant, identified, consented others, e.g. relative, friend, mentor, advocate and other professionals (statutory, or voluntary)
Risk & Relapse Planning
Service users receive crisis and contingency plans, as part of their care plans. These plans form a key element of the care plan, and are based on the individual circumstances of the service user. Contingency planning prevents crises developing by detailing the arrangements to be used where, at short notice, either the key worker is not available, or part of the care plan cannot be provided, e.g. the absence of a staff member through sickness.
The contingency plan includes the information necessary to continue implementing the care plan in the interim, for example, telephone numbers of service providers and the name and contact details of substitutes who have agreed to provide interim support.
To reduce risk, the plan, as a minimum, includes the following information:
- Who the user is most responsive to
- How to contact that person
- Previous strategies that have been successful in engaging the service user
Based on comparisons in CISS* scores (on presentation and at discharge):
In 85% of cases, there was positive improvement in sexual/injecting risk behaviours.
Least movement were General Health and Occupation. However, in 40% of cases, some improvement in occupation readiness was evidenced.
In 16% of cases there was a negative movement in social functioning, in other words deterioration in the stability of their accommodation despite improvements in other areas.
*CISS (the Christo Inventory for Substance Misuse Services, George Christo, Ph.D., Psych.D.) This is the main tool used for treatment outcome evaluation work, providing a simple validated standard measure for outcome monitoring in a practice setting.
To view our leaflet on Making Life Work, please click on this link:
