Being a Navigator

We were all in post at the beginning of August and had the unique opportunity of 4 weeks in induction. At the beginning, some thought this would be too long, but actually not only did we get to see all the great work our six host agencies (Advocacy Centre, Age UK Newcastle, Mental Health Concern, Oasis Aquilla, Tyneside Mind, Tyneside Women’s Health) were doing and how their services could help within our role, we also had meetings with several local organisations such as Newcastle and Gateshead housing services, children’s social services and asylum seekers and refugee services as well as complex needs training around housing, drug and alcohol and mental health. For me and I think I can speak for others in the team as well, a highlight of the induction was having the opportunity to get to know my new colleagues in the Fulfilling Lives team. There is such a wealth of knowledge and experience in a diverse range of fields, both from a personal and professional aspect and the great thing about it is, we all get on really well. We had a good laugh getting to know each other, actually, there were only 3 or 4 days we weren’t all together in a training room so it’s a good job we did get on really!! But that makes it so much easier to call on someone about things that are not your area of expertise and say ‘do you mind if I pop in for a cuppa and a chat about SMART Recovery or the guidelines around hospital discharge. Both conversations I have had with my new co-workers in regards to my first client.

Getting my first client:

I was excited and a little nervous…it felt scary to step out of the bubble of the cosy training room but at the same time I was ready and felt confident with my role, the things I had learnt in the induction and the fact I felt so supported by the System Brokers and my fellow Navigators.

My client is under 25 and homeless, both are my areas of expertise. However there are also a great deal of other issues, some that we were trained on and others we weren’t (but if we’d had training on every eventuality we would have been in that training room for a year!) So, I am learning a lot about how systems and procedures work in different organisations and enjoying being the advocate for my client when it seems other services have given up slightly. But most of all I enjoy listening to her. On a good day, she gets a sparkle in her eye when she talks about what she wants from the future, just having that conversation in a café over a hot chocolate makes her feel ‘normal’ (whatever ‘normal’ is!). On a bad day it is difficult for her to engage and although we are there to motivate and encourage, I’m sure in these dark times a minute feels like an hour. But she is here to live another day and that is all way ask for right now.

System Change:

Another part of our role as a Navigator (and for me a very interesting long term goal) is to identify blockages within the systems already being used in order to create and encourage change. It was evident that in the induction everyone could tell you things that didn’t work in their previous job, most were following policies and procedures and couldn’t deviate from them. The beauty of this programme is that we are not delivering a service, we access the services that are already out there. So, if we see something isn’t working or we could see a better solution for a positive outcome, we have the pathways to be able to challenge decisions. There are many organisations on board with the ethos of the Fulfilling Lives programme who are passionate about making systemic change, representatives from these organisations come together to create our Operational and Strategic groups to look at what can be done to over come the identified blockages. We have only been with clients for a month and already some of the blockages have been discussed in operational and management meetings. Which gives me as a Navigator confidence that our views are being considered and listened to.

In all, the first month on the job has gone very well, some navigators have 2-3 clients so far and I have the initial meeting with my second this week. I’m definitely looking forward to the different challenges we’ll be presented with, being a support for our clients and getting to know our staff team a little more, (especially how competitive they are in the bowling alley on Thursday night).