Carers Guide Project

Families have told us they are often excluded when someone they care for is admitted as an inpatient.  

Here’s what we are doing about it

 

Last July HelpingMinds® called upon the skills of  Cath as a Project Officer specifically to address this issue; over the following months Cath will provide regular updates about how the project is developing.

 

September Update

In July I came to work at HelpingMinds® as a Project Officer working in collaboration with staff on at inpatient mental health units to improve communication with family members and friends who are in a caring role for the person who has been admitted.

We have joined up with four different sites for this project:

• Graylands
• Alma Street
• Bentley 
• Armadale 

At each of the sites a key worker has been identified as a ‘Carer Champion’.

We’ll be working together to develop a resources toolkit and to identify practical ideas that work well for the individual, their family and staff.

Dr Donna Turner is the manager of the project and we have two carers and one consumer working closely with us throughout the project to make sure we keep it relevant.

This project builds on the release of the Practical Guide for Working with Carers of People with Mental Illness. You can download a PDF copy here:

The Practical Guide focuses on 6 Partnership Standards:

Thanks to the Mental Health Commission and our national peak body Mental Health Carers Australia for providing funding to this project.

We’ll keep you informed how the project is going with regular updates on this blog.