The principal tenet of a Living Well service is that it strives to meet people where they are and do whatever it takes to help them. This means that every journey with Living Well will be unique: built around a person drawing on multiple offers, taking loops and turns as their needs require.
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Bearing in mind that the range of offerings within each Living Well service is different and that each individual journey will be different, in this section we provide an example of a person's journey with Living well and identify some key steps along the way in order to provide a more granular picture of user experience.
A journey through Living Well
This journey represents the different interventions the Living Well team and network may offer. How people will move through this journey will be determined by their needs, aspirations and desires. Some people may pop in and pop out, others may stay for a longer period.
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People can also introduce themselves
Self introduction
Introduction
People can be introduced by another service or person
Initial Conversation
Holding an initial conversation to understand what brought them here today, what is going well for them, the current challenges they face, what they would like to achieve and who can help them achieve it.
Centering support around a person and their story
Listening curiously and attentively to people’s stories and experiences, taking the time to get to know people without making assumptions, building trusting relationships, and empowering people to drive and own their support, using the Living Well Care Plan.
Addressing basic needs
Providing or connecting people to practical support. This could be health services, benefits, financial support, housing support, help to stay clean and well, getting good sleep or other support they need to ensure freedom from stress caused by their basic needs not being met.
Living Well workers are able to walk alongside people to provide practical hands on help or support to fill in forms and letters, find out where help is available, how to contact them and undertake a warm handover. They would also help people to keep themselves and others safe, undertake crisis planning and provide more intensive support to navigate the system during a crisis.
Reflecting on the journey
Celebrating achievements and successes, asking about what could have been better and taking immediate actions.
Learning positive coping strategies
Developing resilience through:
Identifying strengths, building self belief and developing positive coping strategies to manage difficult emotions and thoughts; reducing self harming, suicidal thoughts and non-adaptive coping; supporting people to learn long term strategies to manage their mental health and wellbeing; getting to the root causes of difficulties and overcoming past traumas through psychological therapies, counselling and other support; working with people to access the right medication, overcome drug and alcohol addiction and manage mental and physical health conditions.
Developing healthy relationships
Working not just with the individual, but their whole family and network.
This involves thinking about what the family needs and working with people to identify how they can draw on their network to help them to thrive and stay well. Living Well workers will encourage people to build new connections, have fun, and give and receive support through joining community activities and groups. Supporters and carers of a person are also encouraged to access the Living Well Network to ensure that they have what they need to improve their wellbeing and the wellbeing of those that they care for.
Fostering wellbeing
Living Well workers will also support people to: Fiind ways to get involved in their local community through volunteering; building connections and having fun through social prescribing and engaging in positive activities; finding a hobby or pastime they really enjoy; and living a healthy lifestyle by doing things like exercising, being in nature, having a healthy diet and learning mindfulness, meditation and grounding techniques.
Building a positive future
Helping the person to identify achievable goals.
Living Well workers will work with the person to understand who they are and help them to identify their skills, strengths and gifts. They will help the person think about their desired future and use strategies, such as motivational interviewing, to help them to identify goals and strategies for achieving them. This may involve helping them to access support, or to support others, and to try out new activities to understand the range of education, training and employment opportunities that might be available to them. They will also provide advocacy support in the workplace to help people sustain healthy happy working lives.
Keeping in touch
Informing people they can come back at any time and the door is always open. Hosting ‘listening lunches’ in the network that people can pop into to stay in touch.