Who is this service for?
Individuals aged 18 and over who have experience of mental health treatment and/or social care services, or who are responsible for a vulnerable person in a personal or professional capacity.
What does the group do?
Members of the group attend regular meetings to talk about their experiences and think with organising tutors about ways in which their experience can help the Trust improve the mental health and social care teaching it offers. Service users and carers can offer excellent insights into how mental health and social care professionals can offer the most effective help and address difficult situations.
We feel the experience and knowledge we gain from talking to service users and carers is invaluable to the ongoing development and training of our mental health and social care students.
We wish to involve service users and carers as experts who, through their experiences, can help us think about aspects of our work such as teaching students, assessing patients, maintaining high standards of care, managing our staff and planning the best care possible.
To date group members have been involved in a number of areas such as offering their opinions and advice, sitting on an interview panel for new students, giving talks about their experiences to social work students and verifying student essays. All of these activities have made a huge difference to the standard of care and education we can offer.
Why should I join?
Our group members find that helping others understand the reality of mental health and social care can be a very rewarding experience - many are keen to share what they have learnt to help improve the care we can deliver to patients.
In return for your help we will train and support you to develop your skills in a number of areas so that you can contribute to mental health and social work education and training in a meaningful way.
We will reimburse reasonable travel expenses, and in some cases pay fees for work undertaken such as teaching or assisting in the recruitment process. All expenses and fees can be discussed on an individual basis.
I'm interested, what now?
Call Claudia Thomas, the project coordinator, on 020 8938 2269, or email: cthomas@tavi-port.nhs.uk to find out more information.
