Government research over recent years has pointed to the fact that there is a greater prevalence of mental health issues within social housing tenant groups than there are in the general population of home owners.
Mental health and social housing
In 2018, the mental health charity Mind reported that approximately 1 in 3* people living in social housing has a mental health condition.
The charity added to that around 43%* of those reporting a mental health issue in social housing felt their condition was deteriorating where they currently live.
For social housing landlords, these issues are challenging in terms of finding the right support networks and processes to help tenants improve their mental and overall wellbeing. Tenants may be struggling to find the right home to suit their needs or may discover conditions where they live don’t support their lifestyle appropriately.
It’s true to say that many people living in social housing often face multiple challenges, including financial difficulties, social isolation, and health issues which can create significant impacts on their mental health.
It has been said that it’s beneficial for everyone when social housing providers take steps to support their tenants’ mental health and wellbeing.
But what proactive strategies can social landlords implement to help tenants improve their mental health and live healthier lives?
1. Provide mental health support services
A positive approach for any social housing provider is to research and collate information around mental health support services, including counselling and therapy, available in the area where the tenants live.
Being able to signpost these services to tenants looking for additional support is a relatively simple and effective way of helping people who may not have access to advice services or charities in any other format.
Adopting this supportive outlook as a social housing provider will create a multitude of wide-reaching benefits. Both new and existing tenants will be able to see that their landlord can offer this type of experience and advice as a safety net for people if they need access to mental health support services.
2. Build communities with social connections
A scientific study in 2021° reported that there was a direct correlation between social isolation and increased neighbourhood density, suggesting that the more built up the area, the more likely it is that people experience feelings of loneliness.
For social housing providers, it seems to make sense that where they have lots of tenants living in busy areas, a drive to create social connections and a sense of community could really help people feel they are part of local society.
One way that may help is for social housing providers to offer social events and activities or create communal spaces for tenants to use so they can construct helpful social networks.
This may be a community event once a month where tenants get together for a chat, attend events that celebrate leisure activities or work on a project to helps improve the local area.
3. Provide staff training and education
In order to create the right conditions for social housing providers to deliver effective mental health support for tenants, suitable training and education for employees is vital so they can better understand and support tenants’ mental health needs.
This may involve a variety of training and education programmes that can include training in mental health awareness, recognizing signs of distress, and responding appropriately to tenants’ mental health needs.
Staff can create support networks across the company to share information and useful strategies so that they can deal effectively with tenants’ issues and point them in the right direction to suit their individual needs.
4. Address environmental factors
There’s no doubt that the surroundings where tenants live will have a direct impact on their quality of life. Historically, some tenants in social housing have recounted stories around living in overcrowded conditions or have encountered poor-quality housing with problems ranging from noisy neighbours, lack of essential services or issues with mould or damp.
A key process for any social landlord is to ensure tenants’ homes are well-maintained, adequately ventilated, free from damp and are safe to help support tenants’ mental and physical wellbeing.
5. Collaborate with local mental health services
Creating connections with local mental health services that can be nurtured over the long term will deliver advantages for both tenants and social housing providers.
There may be times when tenants don’t need support, but when they do, having those essential advisory networks in place will be invaluable so that providers can offer the right support at the right time.
Some projects that could add real value for tenants include joint working initiatives, referral pathways, and information sharing to ensure that tenants receive timely and appropriate assistance.
How we can help
Here at Housing Tenancy Fraud Investigations (HTFI), we are a highly skilled team made up of professionals with extensive experience, including ex-police officers, investigators, those with detailed knowledge of the law, housing associations and local authorities in order to deliver social housing fraud prevention.
As a result, we are specialists in the provision of support for local authorities and social housing providers so that they can accurately identify a wide range of fraudulent situations, such as social housing fraud, housing benefit fraud, illegal subletting, occupancy fraud and false representation of housing needs.
Supporting housing associations and social landlords, the skilled team at HTFI ensure that their properties are being used as the tenants ‘only and principal home’.
We help landlords to regain control of misused properties, enabling them to move genuine would-be tenants off the waiting list.
If you suspect any aspect of social housing fraud or related issues, please get in touch with us.
References
° https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140673621026039
