Working with Patients
and Service Users
This page describes the kind of things those working in Mental Health do every day.
The principles of working together for patients and services users is fundamental for building safe and trusting relationships and involving people in their own health and care.
Integrated care and team working across multi-organisations ensures, as far as possible, that people accessing community mental health services receive the support and care they require.
Empowering patients to enable them to take as much control of their care as they can and involving them in decision making is crucial to effective working. To ensure it is a person-centred approach working collaboratively with the individual to identity the support they may need and offering encouragement without following any predetermined agenda or goals is a vital part of the role.
Similarly, working collaboratively with patients in their local communities, can assist in making useful connections to enhance this joined up working.
The primary aim of those working in community mental health services is to use your knowledge, and in some cases lived experience, of mental health and care services to provide people experiencing poor mental health with the right level of support, encouragement and opportunity to engage and recover, wherever possible. Very often you will work as a facilitator or connector helping individuals engage with other services, people, activities or groups.
This may include sitting with them, talking and listening to them and giving them space and time to talk about their feelings, tell stories that help make sense of what they are experiencing and connecting with them in a non-judgemental way. This invaluable insight will then form part of the support and care planning processes and provide other members of the multi-disciplinary team with valuable insights.
If you are working in a hospital or in-patient setting you may also be providing personal care and supporting their recovery after treatment.
In most cases, the majority of roles will also assist in signposting people to various services, community support or in some cases health services which may be able to assist the individual meet their needs.