Community Activities Project Ealing (CAPE) was founded 21 years ago, meeting the needs of individuals experiencing serious and long-term mental health needs in the local community. Our founding service was a safe place in the form of a Café where people could meet and take up peer support and volunteering opportunities, alongside an outreach service to support those hardest to engage. These services continue to this day. However, over the years we have recognised that we are working with a wide range of complex needs that have an impact on an individual’s mental health and ability to be socially included, so we have developed, and continue to develop, services alongside our partners to respond to existing and emerging demand. We focus on the person not just the diagnosis, which enables us to recognise that each person is different, so our response needs to be multi-layered and led by the individual.
We offer on going support services to clients with a range of conditions that are either severe, highly disabling, and/or psychotic in nature. Clinical presentations we typically work with include trauma-induced complex depression and anxiety, bipolar disorder, psychosis, personality disorders and PTSD. Our services focus on improving engagement in life, and within the local community. The promotion of equality of opportunity is paramount within our work and we strongly promote the right for our clients to have full access to a variety of learning, housing, leisure, health, employment and training opportunities which improve social functioning and overall psychological wellbeing. We provide services in response to the changing needs of our client group and are committed to ensuring our clients are fully involved in the decision-making process of the services we provide.
CAPE offers clients with complex mental health needs a safe space where they can meet other like-minded people, struggling with similar challenges to themselves, and receive intensive, tailored support with the aim of helping them to live a more rewarding life. Our clients typically live isolated lives, feel profound levels of shame, suffer chronic low levels of esteem, and feel marginalized from society. Many live highly chaotic lives. We provide a safe space where they feel understood, supported, valued and respected as individuals. This provides them with a supportive, environment that enables them try out different parts of our comprehensive range of services and see what works best for them in terms of meeting their personal strengths-based objectives.
CAPE Services include:
Outreach support for clients who are particularly chronic in presentation and/or experiencing a profound crisis in their lives. Outreach workers see clients out in community settings.
The Recovery Point café - a social forum, a place where clients can meet and get support from other service users.
Long-term, on going weekly programme of group and 1:1 psychotherapy - group work includes Behavioural Activation Therapy (BAT), Dance Movement Psychotherapy and a Hearing Voices group.
A comprehensive programme of wellbeing group work - psycho-educational, hobby/special interest, therapeutic, physical and mental health, educational and ICT groups.
Advocacy and advice on, and support with, managing legal, financial, housing and benefits issues, as well as other matters concerned with daily living. Where appropriate, onward signposting to more relevant specialist agency support.
Specialist educational, training and employment coaching and support to help people get back into work.
An extensive range of volunteering roles in catering, office administration, finance, group facilitation, retail and customer care.
CAPE provide the mental health services to The Women’s Wellness Zone (WWZ) for women with complex needs such as substance misuse, mental health issues, domestic abuse, offending behaviour and prostitution or trafficking.
