Working together with service users/patients

Overview

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.

Why is this important

The primary goal of supporting patients who access community mental health services is to enable them to live independent lives (or as independent as possible) and to provide them with the tools to support themselves and be discharged from services.

Working together for patients and service users improves communication, often saves valuable time (for both the service user and the member of the team), improves relationships across the multi disciplinary team and provides a better experience for the person receiving the care/support. This approach is often referred to as integrated working or multi-disciplinary working.

Teams who have shared values/principles and a vision or purpose develop a greater understanding of each others roles, challenges and their “patient” groups.

Giving people the space to talk and share their feelings, experience and stories can help make sense of what they have or are facing and can provide rich information to offer ideas and advice which is centred around their needs.

This can be particularly important for peer support workers/lived experience workers when the person they are helping may have shared traumatic experiences,

Sharing experiences can help the person feel listened to, involved and less isolated.

Working in this way can ensure the person feels they have a say in the decisions which are reached, help people understand the mental health system and what is available and potentially address any difficulties or barriers they may experience or encounter.

Skills Review

Having completed this sub-topic I will understand the importance of these skills.

• I am able to show how my experience of community mental health services, or my own lived experience may provide insight to support service users/patients in their support planning and recovery.
• I am able to work collaboratively to identify the support service users/patients require and encourage co-production.