Our First Hammersley Home
Here at Hammersley Homes we are launching a huge campaign to raise awareness of the huge numbers of people affected by the day to day struggles faced by those suffering with mental illness, and raise £300,000 for the deposit we need to purchase a property for our first Hammersley Home.
Severe mental illness effect 0.9% of the population… and it seems to be spreading. But mental illness isn’t just a statistic. It’s a societal problem, and It’s a very real fact of life for hundreds of thousands of people and their families across the globe. The lack of adequate support, guidance and security for these vulnerable people threatens their lives and leaves friends and families in a constant state of distress from which there is no respite.
We aim to provide a solution with our supported homes for life.
Our first Hammersley Home will offer supported living to those most in need. Residents will be treated with respect, compassion and dignity by staff who understand the complexities of mental illness. Every individual in our care will be given the chance to take the lead in their own journeys and recognise that they are so much more than the mental illness that society defines them by.
As always, we could not do the work that we are doing today without you. If you can offer us any support in reaching our target, we would be extremely grateful.
NICE reports that over 550,000 families in the UK live with the challenges presented by having a mentally ill loved one, struggling with inadequate or no access to the desperately needed support and treatment. If we can raise just £1 from every family living with this, we not only have our deposit, but we have raised awareness of the huge numbers of people affected by these issues.
We are grateful to our wonderful Southampton University Intern, Dareen Almasri, who is working with us exclusively on this project for a few months. She is researching and contacting as many carers and carer groups in the UK as possible, to spread the word about our work and our plans to those directly affected – please help her and forward this email to anyone you know who might be affected by mental illness in their family.
To donate, click the button below.
Outreach Programme Success!
We are delighted to tell you that our Outreach programme is proving to be a resounding success, and much in demand. We have been rewarded with some wonderful feedback, both from our clients and their families. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our volunteers (again!) for their incredible work.
From a parent: “I am so pleased that Hammersley Homes Outreach Support is providing my son with some much needed company and social contact. Over the past couple of years he has been almost completely isolated relying entirely on support form me which is not easy now that I am getting older. He is not the easiest of people to deal with but I am hopeful that the Volunteers will continue to support him and hope that he will gradually feel able to do more with them. He looks forward to their visits and phone calls and it gives me a short but welcome break.”
From a client: “Thank you so much you’re like an angel and tried to come in and help thank you so much like a guardian angel, I hope tomorrow is a better day thank-you for everything you have done for me xx” |
My Giving Circle
We are now signed up for My Giving Circle, an organisation that donates to your favourite charities. They are currently giving away £300,000 (this would cover the full deposit for our first Hammersley Home) to the charity with the most votes so if you would like to support us, at no cost to you, get voting!
In the news
This tragedy exemplifies everything that is wrong with support services for mental illness as they are. Luke Wilden didn’t just fall through the net of social care, he was thrown out of it. Underfunded social care services simply don’t have the resources to care.
Helping people with mental illness live safely in supported housing requires more than just the ‘housing’ part. Good supported housing needs ‘support’ to be personalised to every individual, with the capacity to be increased if needed – without simply increasing the workload of existing staff. Lessons must be learnt from tragedies like these, which supported housing is meant to prevent.
The abhorrent failures of large institutions for learning disabilities and mental illness like Lennox Castle make it clear exactly why Care in the Community was needed. Vulnerable people deserve a life of dignity within – not outside of – society. But many are still trapped in hospitals, or left without support entirely. Have we learnt the lessons we need to?
According to Nuffield Trust’s report, mental health staff numbers increased by 10% over the past decade, but this was outstripped by demand: talking therapy referrals rose 61%.
It’s good to see NHS mental health staff numbers rising.
But the rate of increase just isn’t fast enough.
Meet the team - Annabelle Howley
Annabelle is our office and admin manager, and keeps us all in order!
1) What made you want to work for Hammersley Homes?
I was really inspired by everything that has been achieved so far and really wanted to be part of such an exciting project!
2) What would you say your biggest achievement with the company has been so far?
I haven’t really been here that long, but I’m very excited about some campaigns that I’m currently working on that will be launching soon!
We also did had the Big Give at Christmas and exceeded our Target!
3) Why is it so important to support people suffering from mental illness?
If there is ever an opportunity to help someone, then I want to do it. We have a solution, and if I can help (in whatever way that is) to get us there then I will.
4) If you could make one change in the world, what would it be?
Be Kind!
5) What would you say to people considering working for a charity?
No two days will be the same – it will be hard, but also incredibly rewarding and you will find yourself doing things and making a real difference. Things that you didn’t know were possible.
Support our work
Hammersley Homes couldn’t do what we do without the help of our supporters.
DONATE just £3 a month to change a life, by texting 3HOMES to 70580
Texts cost £3 plus two standard rate messages and you’ll be opting in to hear more about our work and fundraising via telephone and SMS. If you’d like to give £3 but do not wish to receive marketing communications, text 3HOMESNOINFO to 70580
