News News Archive 2010 "It's their job - It's my life": Support in Mind Scotland carers' survey
"It's their job - It's my life": Support in Mind Scotland carers' survey |
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| Monday, 08 November 2010 |
On 28th October, Support in Mind Scotland (formerly the National Schizophrenia Fellowship Scotland) celebrated their change of identity by launching ‘It's their job, it's my life’, setting out the findings from a survey of informal carers about their experiences of communication and contact with professionals involved in the care and treatment of the person they support. The 214 carers who took part in the survey support someone who is seriously affected by mental illness. The report contains a wealth of their personal testimonies and compares their experiences now with the findings of a similar survey undertaken in 1999. In the 10 years since the last survey was carried out new legislation, policy and guidance have been adopted in Scotland to promote recognition of and respect for the role of informal carers. Nevertheless, while it appears that some things have improved, many carers report that they still don’t receive the kind of information they feel they need to help them in their role. Although carers find it easier to access information now compared to 1999, there is substantial dissatisfaction with the availability and quality of information they receive. One of the key messages from the survey related to recovery is that “[p]eople with mental health problems and mental illness have a wider context to their lives than simply being a patient or a diagnosis. It’s critical to the recovery of someone with mental illness that they receive support where needed to maintain their networks of supportive family and friends. Central to maintaining these networks is the provision of appropriate information and support to carers...” The report also notes that “[t]here was little reference to recovery in the feedback received from carers. It is important that services include this key message in their communication with carers and explain what is meant by this.” Informal carers want to be treated as partners by the people who work in mental health services, however there can be great differences between mental health services and professionals in the way they work with carers. In this report, Support in Mind Scotland highlights that listening to, communicating with, providing information to carers is an important way to protect the safety of patients in the context of NHS mental health services. To read the full report, please click here. To read the 2009 SRN report, Carers and Supporting Recovery, please click here. |
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16 May Since the first discussions about bringing recovery based approaches to Scotland began, one thing has always been clear: that people's personal narratives - the stories and experiences they share - are central to understanding and encouraging mental health recovery. |
| Black women, recovery and resilience |
16 May In a specially commissioned article for SRN, researcher and psychiatric survivor Dr Jayasree Kalathil explores the issues of recovery and resilience from the perspective of black women interviewed for a 2011 study by Survivor Research and the Mental Health Foundation. While the article focuses on recent data from England, there are important lessons to be learnt everywhere, including Scotland. |
| What mental health practitioners talk about, when they talk about SRI 2 |
16 May Having recently facilitated Learning Networks on the use of the updated Scottish Recovery Indicator (SRI 2), SRN’s John McCormack was keen to hear from practitioners about their use of the tool and how it affects practice in the field. Here John shares his discussions with Lindsay Kerr and Jan Thomson who both work in NHS Ayrshire and Arran’s Mental Health Services. |
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