The action plan came from a workshop for the under 65s community mental health teams, in April 2011.
The workshop focused on how the teams could support carers, families and friends of people with mental health problems more effectively.
The resulting action plan sought to give more prominence to carers’ issues, and to ensure they felt valued by offering carer assessments, appropriate support and relevant information.
A key action in the plan was to allocate a Carers Lead to each team. This has been rolled out across Community Mental Health, Early Intervention, and Home Treatment teams, as well as the Recovery Team.
The leads now meet regularly with the Carers Unit to help develop policies, procedures and services, and to inform colleagues of relevant issues. They also keep carers, their families and friends informed by maintaining notice boards and providing leaflets.
Other action plan achievements include:
- a carers information folder and e-folder for staff
- two training sessions for staff on carer assessments and support plans attended by 25 members of staff
- a session on carers and confidentiality for Carers Leads
- information on services given to carers at the point of referral to secondary services
- guidance on the carers legislative framework developed for staff
- step by step guidance on computer processes
- a specific carer's bulletin developed for employees
- a notice board competition - teams took the opportunity to update boards resulting in two new boards created
- dedicated pages in the staff induction workbook for the new mental health trust including a link for Carer Aware e-learning.
With implementation of the action plan completed, the unit is planning a Carer’s Lead workshop to coincide with Carers Week 2012, to identify further actions needed to improve services.
Contact: Amanda Blackton, Carer Development Officer, telephone: 01905 728824.
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