INCLUSION
DEBUG
THE SYSTEM
P eople experiencing substance use, homelessness, poor mental health and contact with the criminal justice system are too often passed between services that treat each issue in isolation. They are told they’ re‘ too complex’ for one service, but not meeting the threshold for another. Support arrives late, and often when crisis has already escalated.
After more than a decade of working alongside people facing multiple disadvantage in Essex, Phoenix Futures and Essex County Council have learned that recovery rarely happens through rigid referral pathways, short-term
Persistence and flexibility are key when supporting people facing multiple disadvantage, says Melanie Pellicci
interventions or appointmentled systems. It happens through trust, persistence and services designed around real lives.
Futures Together was commissioned in 2016 following national research into severe and multiple disadvantage, building on years of frontline experience supporting people whose lives do not fit neatly within traditional service boundaries. The service works with people affected by substance use, homelessness, mental ill health, offending and deep social exclusion, often all at once.
SYSTEMIC EXLCUSION Over the years, one lesson has remained consistent – people facing multiple disadvantage are often excluded by the very systems designed to help them. Fixed appointments, strict engagement expectations and time-limited interventions frequently fail people living with trauma, unstable housing, poor health and financial insecurity. Missed appointments, relapse and disengagement are often viewed as non-compliance, but in reality they’ re often signs that someone is struggling to survive. That’ s why Futures Together was intentionally built differently.
Support is not withdrawn because someone relapses, misses appointments or struggles to engage. Through assertive outreach and community-based support, staff meet people where they are, physically and emotionally, removing barriers that prevent people from accessing help.
PERSISTENT PRESENCE This approach requires persistence. If someone disengages, staff continue reaching out. If someone relapses, support continues. If someone faces a setback, they’ re not pushed back to the start of the process. As James, who had been trying to access mental health care for many years before finding support through our service, shared:‘ I was in a mess … I’ d worked all my life and had my own house, and it was a shock to lose so much so quickly. I got to the point where I didn’ t care anymore. But they never gave up. If they couldn’ t get me, they kept trying, and if that didn’ t work, they came to the door.’
Low caseloads allow staff to provide intensive support that addresses both immediate
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