Support at the caravan
is an out-of-hours
mental health drop in
based in the Cavern, which is a coffee shop in Gloucester city centre.
So this is the Cavern coffee shop.
When people come in each evening, they're able to get a cup of coffee and
enjoy being part of a family here.
We find the talking over coffee is very normalising experience for people.
It's something that we do all the time with friends and coffee shops.
And so again, it removes barriers.
It helps us to connect very quickly on a deeper level
and forthe price of a cup of coffee.
It does a huge amount in building relationships
and in helping to engage people far more quickly.
We see up to 60 people a night here at the Cavern.
We have over 680 people now registered to use the service.
It's open from 6:00 in the evening until 11:00 and is open
365 days a year.
The Cavern really is there to complement the existing clinical services.
We offer a broader range of support than clinical services
are often able to, particularly in the out of hours period.
So we help people with their emotional
well-being and their social well-being in particular.
We have lots of peer support going on every evening.
We offer a listening service for people so we don't offer clinical treatment,
but we're there to provide people with a safe space to go.
And here is where we hold a lot of the mental health drop in.
We focus very much on environment environment for us.
It's half the battle, really, in terms of building trust
and in terms of making people feel safe and comfortable.
If we can achieve that, then it means we can spend a lot more time
engaging with people on a deeper level than we would otherwise
be able to support at.
The Cavern was funded by Gloucestershire CCG.
And that's really helped us to ensure
really cohesive links with other health organisations.
So we're on the Midas system for 111 calls
so people can call 111 and be signposted to us.
We're on the ambulance referral system for the South West Ambulance Service.
We also have links with our local mental health trust and work closely with them,
particularly around individuals who are of particular concern at any given time.
We also work with our local crisis teams
and so we contact them when we need support
and they're able to contact us if they want to refer someone to us.
A&E often signpost
individuals to us, particularly those who frequently attend,
but their needs are more social or
more emotional, less clinical.
We're on our local GP network,
which means that GP's can find information about us on their computers whilst
they were in consultations with people who might benefit from our service.
The Police and Crime Commissioner has funded some workshops
so that we can run arts workshops,
music workshops and singing workshops
so that people can try and reconnect
with perhaps old passions and things that they might have done previously,
but of lost the joy out of or forgotten that were there.
So this room is often used in the evenings for some of the additional activities,
such as the ukulele workshops, singing workshops,
and we use it for other support groups that we might well have.
It's a really community based approach.
Community is at its heart and this is reflected in our staff team that we have.
So we have three staff at each evening at support of the Cavern.
We also have a team of volunteers,
but our staff aren't clinically trained.
They're not mental health professionals.
They're people who
who can listen and who can support others.
but they are people who care about people.
We regularly have people saying that
they would have been
calling the crisis teams or they would have been going to A&E,
or they just wouldn't have coped, whether that would have been kind of
self-harming or attempting suicide or any of those kind of things.
People regularly say actually this
this changed their evening and just being a part of something.
and sometimes we don't even have to have a particularly deep conversation.
It just gives them that sense
of belonging somewhere and a bit of a distraction as well.
I come to the cabin because.
It gets me out of my house because I spend a lot time indoors.
You know, it's a non-judgmental atmosphere.
You know - staff here, I can talk to just listen on.
Doesn't matter what I have to say.
It's a great place to sort of meet new friends.
I would say, come into support The Cavern.
You know, I can just drop in whenever I want.
My life was on the line - suicidal.
I could't cope with things.
Coming here gave me a new breath of life
made me feel
that people care - and they do care.
And they look after you well here
and you can't fault any of the staff at all.
It's absolutely brilliant.
I find here because it gets my confidence
up and makes me more friends.
I met a lot of people when I was here, like my life was not very good.
I had a big problem with my mum and I moved here
and I never used to get out a lot till I find out about The Cavern
And then it gets me out.
The Cavern is very friendly.
We're all like family and it's very welcome.
And it's always good to talk to people and we just have fun
and the staff is very nice as well.
I feel like I've learnt so much being part of.
I feel like I probably get as much out of it as the people who come
but being able to work with people who
so often feel like they've been written off and
just because life is hard and so many different factors
and discovering that within each of those , whether it's
a stereotype or a label that they feel they've been given within
each of those people, there are some such amazing people.
I think that's I.
I'm blown away by that kind of nearly every night, just the conversations
you have and the hearts and the passions that you discover within people
and whether or not kind of they make massive steps forward.
just being able to see that in someone and acknowledge that
and have a chance to get to know them is an incredible privilege.