Bosnians learn about mental health support

Published by Debs Ramsden for Nottingham Community Housing Association Ltd in Housing

Five visitors from Bosnia learned first hand yesterday how Nottinghamshire supports people with Learning Disabilities. 

They visited four projects run by Nottingham Community Housing Association (NCHA) where they met service users and learned about the four different stages of support that the Association's Housing with Care & Support provide. 

The group called Sumero want to develop more community-based and educational services for people in Bosnia who have, what is termed there, 'intellectual disabilities.'  Life in their country is very different and funding in short supply but Sumero want to start a new way to give support.  The visitors aim to learn about training for staff, building houses, assessment of service users and using mixed models of social services - something not currently available in Bosnia. 

Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust are joint sponsoring the visit following a trip to Bosnia last year.  As one of the leading providers of supported housing in Nottinghamshire NCHA was invited to showcase some of its projects during the seven-day visit by the group.

Leading the tour will be Sue Collingwood, NCHA's Contract Manager for Registered Services and Supported Living who was keen to show the visitors how her team operated: 

"It's very exciting for our supported living services to be a part of this extremely worthy cause. When we heard about the SUMERO group and their ongoing campaign to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities in Bosnia, we couldn't wait to be involved.  Staff from NCHA's Housing with Care and Support have put together information about how we developed our service  in the hope that our experiences will support SUMERO in their efforts to develop Supported Living services in Bosnia"