Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust is
fully committed to developing and supporting the empowerment of
service users to play an active role in all aspects of the
planning, delivery and evaluation of mental health, social care and
wellbeing services.
Involvement at all levels
Continually improving the quality of care is an important
priority and one of the main values at the Trust. Listening to the
experiences of service users and carers, and involving them
directly in how we develop services is a very effective way of
achieving this and there are many different activities at different
levels for service users and carers to become involved in. Service
users and carers themselves are best able to decide at what level
they can become most effectively involved at. Involvement can range
from individual care planning (the most common and important level
of involvement) to strategic involvement at Board level.
Roles and opportunities for service users and carers
There are a number of ways that service users and carers can
become involved at the Trust, ranging from local activities and
opportunities within different care teams to Trustwide
opportunities involving other service users, carers and staff.
Service users and carers can choose to give as much or as little
time as they like. Some involvement will happen on a regular or
periodic basis, and some is more project specific or could be a one
off activity. Examples of current involvement opportunities at the
Trust include attending the Trust's service user and carer
engagement forum, attending meetings and events and involvement in
service planning and development.
These are just a few of the ways that you can to help us
maintain our high standards of service delivery.
Expectations of service users and carers
For all service users and carers participating in involvement
activities at the Trust, there is an expectation that they
will:
- Fully participate in the activity
- Be prepared to praise good ideas and practice as well as
challenge things that you don't agree with in a constructive
way
- Ask if you don't understand something. Remember you may not be
the only one!
- Work collectively with other people who are also involved
- Where applicable, prepare in advance of meetings as necessary.
Support will always be available if it is required
What service users and carers and carers can expect
All service users and carers participating in Trust involvement
activities can expect to receive guidance and support in a range of
different ways including:
- Being treated with dignity and respect
- That staff or other people in charge of activities will follow
best practice guidelines when involving services users and
carers
- Being fully reimbursed for any reasonable out of pocket
expenses as a result of participating in Trust activities
- To receive a payment in specific circumstances in recognition
of their contribution, as set out in the Trust's expenses policy
for service users and carers
- Service users should always be assured that they will at no
time be treated negatively as a result of their involvement with
the Trust, particularly if they are feeding back on negative
experiences.
Foundation Trust membership
Service users and carers can also support the Trust to become
more accountable and better at listening to the views of patients,
the public and the wider community in Manchester by becoming a
member of our Foundation Trust application. Members can be as
involved as much or as little as they want from simply receiving
our newsletter and filling out surveys to becoming a governor on
the Council of Governors when the elections take place. To find out
more, please contact:
Foundation Trust Office
Chorlton House
70 Manchester Road
Chorlton
Manchester
M21 9UN
Visit the Foundation Trust
microsite
Telephone: 0161 277 1222
For more information
If you are interested and want to find out more, please contact
a member of staff or get in touch with Patrick Cahoon, Associate
Director for Service User and Carer Engagement on 0161 882 1103 or
Patrick.cahoon@mhsc.nhs.uk