Working in partnership with carers and promoting carer involvement
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Carer involvement – working in partnership with carers and promoting carer involvement
IRAS ID
125528
Contact name
Fiona Lobban
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
Research summary
The shift from prolonged hospitalisations to care in the community has brought carers in the forefront of healthcare provision. This shift has been supported by numerous policies and regulations that aimed to describe and define carers’ involvement but also protect the rights of all stakeholders (DoH, 2008, 2010; HM Government, 1995, 2000, 2004). This movement has been supported by the NICE guidelines for schizophrenia (NICE, 2010), Bipolar Disorder (NICE, 2006) and self-harm (NICE, 2004).
The Next Step for the Carers Strategy (DoH, 2010), however, identified a series of challenges that carers face. Relatedly, committed to the duty to carers of people with mental health problems, the CNWL Trust works to ensure carers are provided with the necessary information to support them in their caring role, and information of partner organisations that are able to provide specific support in response in response to their needs. Recent CNWL internal reports, for instance, suggested that carers may find it difficult to navigate services particularly when in crisis. Carers have also highlighted challenges they face to be involved in the care planning process and when the service user does not want them to be involved.
It is therefore imperative to evaluate and improve on how the carers’ experience is assessed at the CNWL Trust. Results will inform specific interventions that aim to change the culture of carers’ involvement in the management and support of service users with mental health problems. The results will help the development of a questionnaire that is intended to be rolled out across relatives of people with mental health problems who receive services from the Trust.
By interviewing service users, relatives and health professionals, we will identify key themes that are important in achieving these aims. Certain inclusion/exclusion criteria apply to all three groups of the study.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 2
REC reference
13/NS/0057
Date of REC Opinion
20 Jun 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion