Caroline Addison talks about her role as a Local Service manager

Caroline Addison is a Local Service Manager at Garden Walk and Cambridge Road, two supported housing services for people with mental health needs in Cambridge.

She has worked at the service since 2014, starting as a Team Leader, and she progressed her career to become a Deputy Local Service Manager. She then joined Sanctuary Supported Living when it took over running the service in 2017, before being promoted to Local Service Manager just one year late.

Caroline and her team work with the residents to create personalised support plans, which help them identify their interests and strengths, develop their confidence and life-skills, and learn to live as independently as possible.

Caroline’s hard work and dedication to her role recently won her a Sanctuary staff award, after she was nominated by her manager for her compassion and empathy in supporting a client who was very unwell, due to her enduring and complex mental illness.

Caroline refused to give up on her and continued to focus on the positive outcomes that she and her team had achieved by supporting the client over the years. Following a hospital stay, Caroline worked in partnership with other Sanctuary teams and external agencies to help the client return to her flat, where she was surrounded by familiar support staff. Being at home in a safe and familiar place, with staff who knew her and understood her health and wellbeing needs, was essential in helping the client to begin the process of recovery from her mental health crisis.

Despite dealing with such an emotionally challenging situation and having many difficult conversations, Caroline was consistently determined to achieve the best outcomes for the client. This is an approach she takes in all her work – always making the people she supports her priority and putting them at the heart of everything she does – while encouraging and supporting her team to do the same and be their best.