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| Story by Loh Foon Fong, The Star, Aug 16, 2004 |
AT THE homes provided by Quo Vadis Trust, a mental health charity organisation in South London, persons who are not able to cope well with daily living as a result of stress disorders and mental health problems, are given a chance to live on their own in the community. They need not be confined to a mental institution.
At the homes, the support staff workers oversee the needs of the residents. Those who need counselling are counselled. Others who have difficulty caring for themselves are taught basic independence skills, such as personal health care, budgeting, cooking and cleaning. For those on medication, the support workers ensure that they take their pills while community psychiatric nurses and social workers monitor them.
The workers also accompany residents to hospitals, health clinics, social work offices, and social security and housing offices. For those not living in the homes but on their own, there will be a team of key support workers who conduct weekly visits.
All these efforts encourage residents to establish a level of independence and responsibility compatible with their abilities and circumstances.
“The often-debilitating symptoms experienced by people with mental health difficulties mean that many are unable to perform personal and household tasks. With support from staff, many find their burden and pain much easier to live with, and they cope well with life,” says Jim Lim, part-time chief executive officer of Quo Vadis Trust.
“This improves the quality of life of residents in that they can live independently in non-institutional settings,” says Lim who rescued the homes two years ago from being closed by Britain’s Charity Commission.
The mental distress that the residents suffer from can be due to genetic or external factors such as severe depression due to personal tragedies, irreversible damage or injury, excessive drug use, neurological disease, poverty, homelessness and discrimination.
The homes provide individual living space, communal and recreational areas that facilitate social interaction, cooking and laundry facilities that promote self-care and after-care support services for former residents.
Depending on their needs, the clients can be supervised on a 24- or 12-hour basis and based on individual progress, residents will be able to move on to more appropriate independent accommodation.
The homes do not take psychotic cases involving people who lose touch with reality, but only those suffering from neurosis, says Lim, a qualified psychiatric nurse who holds a masters in criminology and social policy.
The 18-bed Cherry Tree Lodge, the largest of the homes, receives ready-to-be-discharged patients from acute hospitals (acting as a short-term respite) and undertakes important therapeutic work outside of a hospital/clinical setting. This enables continuing assessment of a patient’s response to his/her treatment, says Lim.
The home also serves as a back up to overfull hospitals in emergency cases, often as a short-term half-way house and sometimes, for up to 12 months while waiting for permanent housing, he says.
Steve Bullock, the Mayor of Lewisham, officially opened the lodge in November last year [2003].
The other homes, the Bishops Lodge, Coach House, Elmwood Lodge, Wortley Lodge, Adelaide Lodge, Queens Hall, Portland Lodge and Brockley Lodge also provide similar services.
“These homes serve as half-way houses for people who do recover from their illness fully as well as permanent homes for those who cannot cope on their own”, says Lim.
From 48 people in March 2002 when Lim went in as an interim manager, the homes now cater to over 100 people. Quo Vadis Trust provides its services through the resources of Housing Benefits and Supporting People grant (from April 2003).
“All funding is from state and central government and our methods of service delivery are under regular monitoring by the commissioning agencies,” says Lim.
Lim works three days a week at Quo Vadis Trust. He provides support and guidance to the unit managers who oversee support staff running the administration, financial control, marketing, training, interagency liaison, strategic planning and business development.
He often visits the houses to meet up with staff members and residents and attends the Board of Trustees meeting once a month.
“It is most rewarding to see residents improve and return to their normal lives. We have two young men who recovered from mental illness so effectively that they are now holding jobs. They came back to the homes to become volunteers and buddies to some of the tenants, a scheme I set up a year ago. They would give their time and help organise social activities. It‘s nice to know that you can make a difference at this level,” he says.
He adds he is amazed by the staff members at the homes who are generally very enthusiastic about their work and that helps a lot in contributing to the progress of the residents.
It is a challenge for him to continuously motivate these people who are often not recognised or well rewarded for their work while making sure that the facilities continue to be useful to users as a resource which affords them safety, security. independence and dignity, says Lim.
Penang-born Lim, 51, left for Britain after completing Form 5 in 1972 to pursue psychiatric nurse training. He took up a diploma in social work in 1975 and completed it in 1977.
“I left Malaysia because I felt that Malaysia at that tune could not accommodate my interest and passion in the social sciences and the critical issues relating to society in general,” he says.
He worked as a social worker in London and a few years later completed an MA in criminology/social policy. He then served in the public sector as social work manager covering health, juvenile justice and residential planning and rose to be the Director of Social Services in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets (East End of London) in 1997.
A couple of years later, he became an independent management consultant. Besides serving in the Quo Vadis Trust, Lim as also the director of Mann Weaver Drew, a specialist a public sector management consultancy group and a partner and co-owner of two companies providing specialist children’s services to local authorities.
Lim is an external assessor for a number of institutions for the qualifying diploma in social work. He sits as a lay member of the Care Standards Tribunal (Care Standards Act 2000). He is also involved in London's Chinese community and helped set up London’s first Chinese Advice Centre in 1982. He also works with the blacks and other minority ethnic communities on civil liberties and sensitive cultural issues.
Lim lives with his British wife Josephine and two teenage children in Stoke Newington, north London. He is still a Malaysian and visits his family members regularly. Read more about him here.
