We are delighted to announce that Touchstone has been awarded the new Mental Health Peer Led Brokerage contract by Kirklees Council, to commence on 1 October 2017. Touchstone has been delivering the pilot of this innovative service for the past four years, enabling people living with mental health difficulties to use their Direct Payments to access a wide variety of Self Directed Support (SDS) solutions.
With this new contract we will continue our hard work in delivering Kirklees Council’s vision of supporting individuals to take control of their lives and to explore increased choices in supporting their recovery, offering an alternative to statutory support.
First and foremost we are ‘peer-led’. We have a strong foundation of ‘lived experience’ and ‘co-production’ in Touchstone and our peer group is essential to how the service operates. We value their expertise and support them to develop their knowledge, skills and confidence… keep an eye our for new Peer Broker opportunities coming soon!
When we work with individuals we ask them to complete self assessments of their experience which helps the service to track changes over time. Below is the average change data for 2016/2017 following self assessment on receiving Touchstone’s PBS support:
- Control (of SDS package) 49% improvement
- Information (on support options) 49% improvement
- Confidence 47% improvement
- Independence 51% improvement
- Choice 54% improvement
- Satisfaction (with SDS package) 62% improvement
Head to the PBS website to find out more about the service and how the referral process works… and watch this space as we will regularly update our information to reflect the exciting new developments planned for the service.
