Progress has been made towards the Triangle of Care initiative
Carers are vital partners in the provision of mental health and social care services, with 1.5 million people in the UK caring for someone with mental ill health. However, carers frequently report their involvement in care is often unrecognised and their expert knowledge of the ‘well person’ is not always taken into account. As a result, the Triangle of Care service has been developed to bring together carers, service users and professionals. It aims to promote safety and recovery for people with mental health issues and to encourse thier wellbeing by including and supporting thier carers.
We are rolling out the Triangle of Care initiative, which will enable us to work productively with carers across the Trust to enable their involvement in care and treatment wherever possible.
The areas the Trust has targetted already include inpatient wards and the Crisis team, who have all undertaken self-assessments with the support of the Patient Experience team. Many staff have reported being pleasantly surprised at the value they have found in undertaking the self-assessments and have been able to identify a wide range of good practice across their service. A bespoke database has been developed for recording the self-assessments centrally.
The Patient Experience team are currently completing assurance checks on the self-assessments and working closely with staff to collate evidence. An e-learning carer’s awareness training package is currently being deveoped.
In addition, Carer ‘Tea and Chat’ drop in sessions have been introduced throughout the Trust. The idea of these session are for Carers to be able obtain information from members of the Patient Experience team and for them to feedback into how the Trust can improve it's relationship with carers.
For more information about Carers, please see the dedicated webpage.