Service user and carer involvement and engagement

About the steering group

The Complex Emotional and Relational Needs Steering Group will aim to support the development and running of services for people with complex emotional and relational needs and/or a diagnosis of personality disorder across the trust.

Main purpose of the role

As a member of the steering group it is hoped that you will actively contribute and engage with other steering group members to help improve our services and the experiences of people with complex emotional and relational difficulties who use our services as set out in the terms of reference.

Your contribution

• Ask new or different questions to those initially posed based on your own experiences of our services and how it feels to be either the person receiving care from our Trust or the carer of someone that does.
• Advocate for patients and carers views to be included in decision making so that they can speak for themselves.
• Provide another pair of eyes and a different perspective from outside the culture and other influences within our organisation and make sure our thinking is not limited to the boundaries of our own organisation.
• Provide a non-professionalised view and constructive challenge to add richness to discussions and the actions we are taking to improve and develop services.
• Experience, knowledge and skills we are looking for
• Ability to focus on wider views and experiences as well as your own.
• Being able to demonstrate listening and negotiating, with a personal style that is questioning, but not confrontational.
• Working in a problem solving way with others in the group.
• Being able to work with others in a team.
• Being open and respectful to different views, experiences, values and beliefs
• An understanding of equality and diversity.
• A willingness to understand how services are organised and how this impacts on individuals using services and their families / carers.
• Personal experience of receiving support from mental health services in relation to the experience of complex emotional and relational difficulties.

Desirable attributes

• Motivation and commitment to improving the experience of people using mental health services for people with complex emotional and relational difficulties and their families / carers
• Personal experience of receiving support from specific services aimed at helping people with complex emotional and relational difficulties or a family member/carer of someone who does – e.g. psychological therapies, community mental health teams, therapeutic day services

Available support

• Introduction to Pennine Care
• Reasonable adjustments to support your involvement
• Relevant training and support
• Payment for your expertise
• Reimbursement of any pre-agreed out of pocket expenses

For more information about this role, please contact:

Lynette or Ashleigh in the involvement team

Telephone: 0161 7163572

Email: involvement.penninecare@nhs.net

The Patient Experience and Engagement Reference (PEER) Group has been established to co-develop our Trust’s approach to making the patient and carer voice loud and unmissable in our organisation.

It is comprised of service users and carers (or those that have previously used our services in the last 12 months) that are participating in involvement and engagement activities and Trust members of staff working in involvement and engagement.

We are looking to increase the membership and diversity of the PEER Group and invite people with lived and living experience from our local communities to get in touch with a view to joining the group.

View the lived experience member role outline and complete our form to express your interest.

For any further information or for support in completing the form, please contact the involvement team on 0161 716 3572 or email involvement.penninecare@nhs.net

Do you provide care and support to someone who uses our services?

People who provide unpaid care and support to those using our mental health, learning disability and autism services are often known as carers. Carers can be family members, friends and neighbours.

We hold Triangle of Care groups every other month with staff, carers and service users to focus on how we can all contribute to:

• Identifying carers and the essential role they play
• Providing carer awareness training to staff
• Getting confidentiality and information sharing right
• Having dedicated roles to support carers
• How we provide information about our services and what we do
• Gathering and sharing information about support services for carers 

Please contact us 0161 716 3572 or involvement.penninecare@nhs.net for more information

Read more about the Triangle of Care

Healthy Minds (Thinking Ahead in Rochdale) are our talking therapy services and we want to make them the best possible. You might also hear them called 'improving access to psychological therapy' (IAPT) services. Their aim is to help people with anxiety and depression reclaim their lives and recover from their emotional difficulties.

We're looking for people (and those close to them) from all backgrounds, identities and groups, who have used the service, to join our new patient council.

We are currently recruiting to increase the diversity of the council membership and particularly welcome expressions of interest from people from diverse communities to help us grow, learn, be better and consider brilliant innovation diverse people bring.

Information about the patient council

The council’s purpose is to influence decisions regarding the planning, development and delivery of IAPT services by:

• Ensuring people who are waiting to use, are currently using or have previously used IAPT services have the opportunity to share their views and experiences of the service/pathway in a variety of ways.
• Identifying and agreeing areas of focus for realistic service development and improvement based on the experience of those using services as well as ‘must dos’ set out by the Trust, policy or other directive.

View the role outline

To apply to become a member of the patient council, please complete this expression of interest form and return it to the involvement team using the email address below.

For more information about the role, please contact the involvement team on 0161 716 3572 or email involvement.penninecare@nhs.net