Unique NT homeless prevention program encourages positive lifestyle
The Supported Housing Program, a prevention program supporting people at risk of homelessness who are also living with diagnosed mental health issues, is currently offering The Salvation Army’s successful Positive Lifestyle Program (PLP) as a key support to program participants.
The Supported Housing Program, run by The Salvation Army in the Northern Territory (Darwin and Katherine) in partnership with Danila Dilba Health Service, Department of Territory Families, Housing and Communities, Top End Mental Health Services and Top End Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drug Services and The Salvation Army’s House 49, is a prevention program that has been running in its current form for seven months.
It offers case management and a range of additional support to help prevent homelessness.
The Supported Housing team engages with participants through the delivery of support services, Positive Lifestyle Program (PLP), care planning, intervention and advocacy.
Service manager, Phillip Buatava, says, “We work from the other end of homelessness, with people who are case managed by the Top End Mental Health team and who live in their own homes but are at risk of homelessness. The prevention program provides psycho-social support to enable individuals who already have a home, to remain in their home.”
Preventing slide into homelessness
“It's things that many people might take for granted, that can make a significant difference to maintaining housing,” Phillip explains. “For example, someone’s anxiety could be playing up and they can’t answer the door when there's a rental house inspection, or someone is behind in their bills, because they're not comfortable answering the phone, or doing online banking.
“Things that the everyday person might not see as an issue, can be a very big issue for someone struggling with some mental health conditions at some times,” he says.
“And so, our case managers support community members to build resilience and capacity and also work to help build a supportive community around them.”
Positive Lifestyle Program supporting homelessness prevention
The Salvation Army’s Positive Lifestyle Program (PLP) is offered to all participants as part of helping to build resilience and capacity. A unique program, PLP generally runs on a one-to-one basis, with a trained and accredited facilitator.
The PLP works to build greater self-awareness to help transform communication skills and build healthy relationships. With flexible delivery, the program is a non-invasive, non-judgmental way to encourage participants to look at responses and experiences around self-awareness, anger, depression and loneliness, stress, grief and loss, assertiveness and self-esteem.
Successful track record of prevention and transformation
The PLP was first introduced in Australia in 1992 and has been used extensively by court and prison chaplains in Australia, but also runs in schools and a range of Salvation Army services.
It originated in Toronto, Canada where the repetitive offending of juveniles was around 80 per cent, and so The Salvation Army was invited by authorities to try and reverse that repetitive offending. Over a three-year period, it brought down the rate of repetitive offending of those who did the PLP from 80 per cent to just seven per cent.
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Phillip says, “I am a huge fan of the PLP, and it is embedded in our Supported Housing Program contract. It is a non-intrusive way of supporting an individual in our prevention program, without calling it therapy. The different PLP topic books are highly effective and allow people to undertake and review the topics at their own pace.
“It’s a very safe and well-structured program and delivered by our chaplain David, who is someone our clients can relate to and talk with outside of their case management team.”
You can find The Salvation Army's Positive Lifestyle Programs nearest you below