Family and Carers Support

We understand and recognise the need for better involvement of families and carers in the care planning and treatment of people with mental health problems. We support carers to have a voice and share their experiences and views with agencies involved in their relative or friend’s care. We also champion the needs of families and carers aiming to ensure everyone who is affected by mental health problems feels supported.

The involvement of family and carers when someone with mental health difficulties is unwell is crucial in ensuring positive recovery outcomes.

As a Carer, you are an ‘expert’ through your ‘lived experience’ of caring and should be able to have a say in the care and decisions that affect you and the person you care for.

The Carers Trust has set out a guide to best practice for carers in Mental Health Care in England called the triangle of care.

Sharing Information and Confidentiality

Families and carers provide vital support to help their relative or friend manage their mental health condition, periods of crisis and day-to-day life. Services have a duty of care to both people living with a mental health condition and their families and carers. The appropriate sharing of information ensures that families and carers are better informed and thus in a better position to support their relative or friend’s recovery.

Sometimes people may not wish to have their families and carers involved in their care and others may not wish to have certain information shared. In these cases, sharing of information may require a balance between respecting the person’s right to confidentiality, and meeting the needs of family and carers to have relevant information to enable them to provide the best care. Capacity to consent to share information may fluctuate and should be reviewed regularly by care teams.

We aim to ensure that carers and care teams are better informed to work with the important issue of how to best share information in a way that results in positive outcomes for all.