As this year’s #HousingDay also coincided with #WorldMentalHealthDay we took the opportunity to show the value of building good relationships with the customers who live in our homes.

A couple of years ago we introduced the coaching approach to everything that we do at Bromford. We made our patch sizes smaller - replacing the traditional housing manager role (who looked after around 600 homes) with neighbourhood coaches who work with around 175. The idea was that by creating smaller patches, we could build better relationships with our customers –finding out what is important to them, their strengths and goals and how we might help them connect with others.  

Our coaches are getting to know the skills and talents of our customers and the wealth of community assets in every neighbourhood. As we get to know our customers better trust is growing and individuals are more comfortable sharing the challenges they face. We’re discovering things we might never have known about in our old way of working – or that would only have come to our attention when a situation had reached rock bottom and was starting to impact on a neighbour or statutory agencies had got involved.  

Strangers

For 15 years Norma* had lived with a boarded up front door after the glass was smashed. She’d reported it to us and we’d asked for a crime reference number to enable us to go out to do the repair at no cost to her… but she never got back to us. And because our housing managers were so busy offering a reactive service there wasn’t always the time for them to proactively follow up on customers like Norma so, regrettably, we didn’t get back to her.

But that’s all changed and we’re no longer strangers. Mark, her neighbourhood coach explains more:

“I’ve been working with her for a year now and she has gradually shared little snippets of her life. She has three adult children – the eldest of which has a learning disability and she tells me that her husband just couldn’t cope with this. He’d get frustrated and angry and she suffered years of domestic violence before finally plucking up the courage to flee to the safety of a hostel.

“After being rehoused in one of our properties she became withdrawn from the world. She’d locked herself away for years following the break-up of her violent marriage and this isolation took a terrible toll on her mental health, which will take a very long time to mend – but at least now she’s made a start.

“Simply replacing the broken glass in the door helped her to start feeling more secure. She’d not felt safe for years but now that we’re getting to know each other her confidence is slowly building. A lot of my job is invisible – it’s really hard to show the ‘value’ of spending time building trust, listening and simply doing what I say I will, but these are the things that help to create really strong relationships that enable customers like Norma to move on with their lives.

“It’s still early days but the signs are really good. From never opening the door for me when I first called round, Norma now let’s me in. She engages with me, sends me messages and lets me know if she’s not going to be around. She’s seen her GP and was referred to a local mental health support group after we chatted about how beneficial this might be for her… and she’s actively engaged in a self-help group where not only does she gain valuable support, she’s also one of the volunteers.

“It’s incredible to see the progress she has made - she’s only in her mid-fifties and I’m looking forward to seeing the kind of life that Norma carves out for herself as her confidence continues to grow.”

With one in four people in the UK experiencing a mental health issue each year it is no surprise that our colleagues are working with a growing number of customers in this position. This makes it more important than ever that we have the time to spend with people to help them think about how they might deal with whatever challenges they may be facing.

Another example of this comes from neighbourhood coach, Nina.

“When I first met Paul* he was suffering really badly with mental ill health due to previous and ongoing domestic violence from an ex-partner, heavy debt, an addiction to gambling and loneliness.

“Over the few months that I’ve known him, we’ve had loads of conversations not only about his challenges, but also the positives in his life, the things he enjoys and his hopes for the future. Focusing on what is good has helped Paul start to take steps towards a better future.

“Our conversations have given him a renewed confidence to tackle some of his challenges and one of his immediate goals is to sort his debt out – he’s made a great start on this by getting himself a job.

“Needing to find a way to relax, Paul has started meditating at a local Buddhist temple. He’s now receiving specialist counselling and has opened up to a friend about what he’s been going through. It turns out that his friend has similar issues so they are really understanding and supportive of each other.

“He told me about his love of art and that he’s used it as a form of therapy in the past and I’m so pleased to say that he’s taken this up again… he’s even approached a local café that have agreed to showcase his artwork – how good’s that for his confidence?

“Paul is now looking towards a much brighter future. His aspiration is to develop his art into a career. He still has a way to go but is making all the right moves to make this a reality.”

It’s not just about the person with their name on the tenancy agreement either. We’re interested in the whole household. For example, when Cathy first met Jake* he’d recently moved back to his parents’ home after suffering with anxiety for a number of years. Cathy said:

“Jake is 29 and when I first met him he was really unwell. He kept himself away from the outside world, rarely leaving his bedroom. He was having regular panic attacks, couldn’t hold down a job and couldn’t engage with anyone beyond his immediate family. The relationship between him and his parents was getting really strained but because I’d built up a decent relationship with his mum and dad they were happy to ask me for help.

“They asked if I could speak with Jake, and during that first meeting he told me that he didn’t want to carry on living the way he was. I helped him think through some goals and put together a bit of a plan. It hasn’t all been plain sailing. At one point he had something of a crisis, which could have given him the perfect excuse to retreat but he didn’t give up. Jake has now come on in leaps and bounds. From being a recluse who never came out of his room and reliant on tranquilisers to get through the day Jake is now a different man.

“His confidence has grown enabling him to volunteer regularly at a local café. He’s baking and selling delicious vegan cakes – the demand for these has been so great that he is now looking at seed funding to start a small business.

“He’s been studying short courses with the Open University and has successfully enrolled on an Open University Diploma Course in Natural Sciences (Physics) which starts in January – and he’s applied for student finance.

“Jake is looking after himself now and regularly sees his GP who is supporting him to wean himself off the tranquilisers and he’s also on the waiting list for a place on a cognitive behavioural therapy course. He’s managed to successfully apply for Universal Credit, something he was frightened by before we started working together, and he’s also applied for a Personal Independence Payments (PIP). He is even starting to think about looking for a place of his own.”

Housing is about far more than putting a roof over somebody’s head. These stories are just the tip of the iceberg. With some reports suggesting that mental ill health is costing the UK economy as much as £100bn a year, we can see just how crucial our role is. By taking the time to build relationships we are starting to see how a coaching approach can contribute to our customers and their families improving their wellbeing.

 *All names have been changed