Cale House

Cale House is situated in the centre of Inverness, next to the main shopping centre. It is convenient for public transport, Post office and all city centre facilities. It is an attractive privately built housing block which supports up to 22 vulnerable single homeless people.

Cale House operates as a  ‘Dry House’ where no alcohol or drugs are permitted. Service users are offered occupancy agreements for up to a two year period and during this time are supported to move on into thier own tenancies.

The  accommodation is made up of 8 double flats and 6 single flats. All are fully furnished and are equipped with most essential household requirements. Bedding is provided as are kitchen utensils. Each flat has a TV and a payphone.

Services

Aims & Objectives

• To provide an additional link within existing homelessness services in the Highland region.
• To assist in addressing the problem of a lack of good quality move - on accommodation.
• To provide support to residents with a variety of needs.
• To enable the person to rediscover skills and abilities and to discover latent and new skills.
• To encourage the person to participate in and take responsibility for the development of his/ her Care Plan.
• To equip the person with the skills to interact with others in on-going relationships.

Individual Support Plan

Support is offered in the areas fof health, family relationships, social interaction, basic living skills, housing applications, budgeting, time management, hobbies and therapeutic work. Each service user is allocated a keyworker. Together they will look at these areas and draw up a care plan, which will identify how the goals will be achieved, decide on a timescale, what type of support is required and who will offer it.
Reviews are held every 3 months in order to monitor progress.

Family Involvement

Service users are encouraged to visit their families and visa versa. Key workers will help and support residents to initiate contact with family if the relationship has broken down. The key worker will only do this when the service user feels ready to make contact with family.

Community Involvement

Service users are encouraged to interact within the local community. Most residents undertake some form of voluntary work and many are involved in training schemes. Local churches support the work at Cale House.

Facilities

Other Services include:

Some service users have social work involvement. Others are interested in being referred to agencies who offer psychological help, such as cognitive therapy or dealing with social phobias, anxiety and anger. Cale House has established links with agencies such as Action Team for Jobs, Adult Education and Apex should residents wish to make use of these services.

Management & Staffing

Staff

Cale House is staffed by a well trained and experienced staff team.

• • 1 Managing Coordinator   Valerie Bell
  • 1 Project Leader             Zandra Kinnaird
  • 1 Project Worker
  • 4 Full time support workers
  • 3 Part time support workers
  • 1 part time administrator

Admission Procedure

Criteria

The applicant must be homeless at the point of referral (this can include being in temporary accommodation). They should be in receipt of support or have a plan of support for current problems. All accommodation at Cale House is above ground level and may therefore be unsuitable for a person who suffers some physical disabilities.

Costs

Places are offered for up to two years and the costs are made up in a variety of ways including Housing Benefit, Supporting People and a small service user conrtibution. For further information please contact Cale House direct.

Referrals Procedure

A referral for an applicant who wishes a place at Cale House should come initially from an agency which would have some working experience of the person, for example: Osprey House, Beechwood House or Council related services like Social Work. The applicant must be homeless at the point of referral.

Additional Information

Activities

We have an active service user involvement stategy which enables service users to contribute to the direction of the service, recruitment of staff and take part in activities in which they are most interested.

In addition to voluntary work within the local community, service users are involved in personal activities and hobbies. There are also computers with internet access available for the use of service users and gym equipment available.

Please contact the Project Leader if you would like help in reading and understanding this information.

INSPECTION

Cale House is registered with SCSWIS under the Crossreach Mental health and Homelessness Housing Support Service. It is currently seeking registration as an independent service. The latest joint inspection report is available to view in the public documents area of this site.