A Practical Guide for Working with Carers of People with a Mental Illness Baptcare Implementation Project – 2018

The report outlines the evaluation of Baptcare’s current practices against the six standards listed in ‘A Practical Guide for Working with Carers of People with Mental Illness’ (the Guide). The Project
used The Guide’s self-assessment tool and a strengths-based approach to evaluate and improve Baptcare’s carer inclusion practices. Staff self-assessments were completed at the beginning of the Project. This enabled the identification of strengths, as well as gaps and areas for improvement. The Project was then able to focus on raising organisational awareness of the Guide’s standards via staff training, and also
provide relevant training resources and supporting documentation for ongoing staff training using a “train the trainer” approach. An action plan was developed and selected changes were made to
Baptcare’s practices, with additional actions identified for the future. Baptcare was able to make concrete changes to increase the inclusion of family, friends and carers in Baptcare’s everyday practice with additional future improvements identified. The key areas of focus were staff training, appointing carer liaison officers, and the need to identify carers and their rights.