Short Stay Mental Health Homes: Sarah’s Story
Our short stay mental health homes offer step‑up or step‑down support, helping people return to their home when it is safe and right for them.
Sarah arrived at Hope House, one of our short stay mental health homes, following a suicide attempt, whereupon she had been placed in a coma for several weeks and was given a three per cent chance of survival. A high-achieving professional, she had spent her life being in control, but when her marriage ended abruptly, coupled with feelings of friends’ and family betrayals, it triggered a complete emotional breakdown.
Sarah was used to meeting life’s challenges with determination and independence. But this time was different. She described feeling like “the walls had caved in,” with no clear way out.
Hope House offered Sarah the safety and stability she urgently needed. In those early days, the focus was simply on helping her rest, rebuild a sense of trust, and to feel safe. But what became just as important was what happened around her within the shared spaces and quiet conversations of everyday life.
She quickly realised the power of being with others who had lived experience. “It was being alongside others who really understood, who just got it,” she says.
Shared experiences helped create a turning point. Sarah describes moments when a glance or small comment reminded her that she wasn’t alone. While without pressure to explain, Sarah found something she hadn’t found elsewhere: belonging; growing alongside others, witnessing resilience and rediscovering her own.
Slowly, the desire to keep going grew stronger than the urge to disappear. Living independently again, Sarah continues to battle having recently been declared bankrupt. She is instead turning her attention to moving to a career in mental health in the construction industry she knows well by becoming a mental health champion of her own.
“It just felt like supporting arms around me constantly. It didn’t matter whether it was six o’clock in the morning or 10 o’clock at night if I wanted to reach out to somebody.”
WATCH SARAH IN HER OWN WORDS (opens on YouTube over 18's only)
More recently, Sarah volunteered on a lived experience panel for Oriana House, part of a new network of short stay mental health homes in Swindon, helping to ensure the women-only service is designed around the needs of women in crisis.
Designed around dignity, understanding and recovery, the property includes a communal lounge and kitchen, a sensory room, a large garden, and an outbuilding that provides space for craft activities, one-to-one support meetings and offices. You can read more about the project here.
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