Personalisation means recognising that a person using services is best placed to know what they need and how those needs can be met. It means that people can be responsible for themselves and can make their own decisions but also that they should have information and support to help them do this.

Personalisation of services means that rather than presuming that “one size fits all”, it is essential to enable people to have care and support built around their personal needs, choices and aspirations. Penumbra feels strongly that, as far as possible, all services should be personalised so that people have more choice and control over their lives.

For some people personalisation will be about having effective, reliable and consistent services, such as our Nova Projects or Plan 2 Change Peer Mentoring. For others it will be the opportunity to utilise informal support networks more effectively with the knowledge that expert back-up support will be available during times of crisis or difficulty. And for others it will be the availability of knowledge, information and skills training that will enable self-management of their personal situation.

Different systems and processes may be created to increase personalisation such as using Direct Payments or introducing Individual Budgets that can be held by service users or by other agencies on behalf of service users. Such systems allow people to influence, plan and have more individually tailored services that can fade in and fade out as required. Services that develop people’s potential to self manage their own mental health and wellbeing are also being introduced so that people can develop the knowledge, skills and opportunities to be more in control of their lives. Penumbra is very keen to explore these issues with people who use our services in the coming years.

For more information on how Penumbra can help with Self Directed Support click here

 

Penumbra SDS Info.pdf