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go: [ Carers Council - HOME / Confidentiality Conference ] |
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Carers and Confidentiality in Mental Health Conference
 Carers and Confidentiality in Mental Health Conference - April 2004 Full report available to download from bottom of this page, as is Graham Machin's paper 'Carers & Confidentiality - Law and Good Practice'. Our conference took place on St George's day, which turned out to be beautifully sunny and the drive to the conference centre at Edwinstowe was lovely. The aim of the day was for carers and professionals to have an opportunity to discuss the issues surrounding confidentiality. This issue is often raised in relation to families and carers and was highlighted in the audit the Carers Council and Healthcare Trust Research and Development Department carried out two years ago. We aimed to make it a creative day as well as look at the legal aspect of confidentiality and what it means. From these discussions we hoped to start to develop new guidelines that would help us all understand what confidentiality means to professionals, families and carers and to learn along the way. The chairman for the day - Chris Clark from Central Notts. MIND introduced the programme starting with Dr Joan Rapaport setting the scene with the national research findings into confidentiality and information sharing. Graham Machin, Barrister, followed looking at the legal aspect of confidentiality and dispelling some of the myths surrounding the object. The TV style debate was an opportunity for Simon Reed from PALS to chair the debate with Dr Michelle Hampson and Peter Robinson a carer, discussing the issues and answering questions. This raised issues of communication and language used by professionals. The Care Programme Approach reviews have a medical emphasis and professionals may not appreciate the needs of carers. It was concluded that professionals should have enough time and resources to include carers, and carers should be seen as part of the team. After an excellent lunch we split into workgroups to look at areas where confidentiality has been an issue for people. From these five workgroups we gathered three points to take forward. The workgroups and points were the following: 1. Carers Rights - Training for all mental healthcare staff and consultants should be mandatory and carers should be involved in the training. The rights of carers means they should be listened to. GP's should be more aware of carers needs. There should be a carer support worker available to support a carer at any time. Early Intervention is the key to on-going support for carers. 2. Potential for Family Conflict - Training in mental health for families and GP's would help reduce conflict. Wider education of &P's and schools about the real nature of mental illness would help raise awareness. Family concerns should be taken notice of. For carers, information on benefits and family counselling would help reduce conflict. Experienced carers should be available to support new carers. 3. Sharing Information - The content from the conference will be fed to the statutory services and specifically to the CPA review group. The key issues will be gathered and sent to senior managers including the Chief Executive of the Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust and Directors of Social Services and Primary Care Trusts. Carers should be consulted as a matter of course from first onset and throughout contact with services. 4. Treatment - Professionals should use plain English and check that they have been understood. This would achieve real partnership between carers and professionals. Notes to be written up in user friendly style. There should be opportunities to ask questions without the carer having to ask. 5. Safeguarding the Future - The Advanced Agreement is a useful tool for recording service user's wishes , this should be utilised more. Efforts should be made to improve communication between the user and the services and should include the carer. Carers Assessments should lead to action. Postcodes should not determine levels of treatment. Following the workgroups and feedback session we had a 'talking heads' style production "Carry on Caring" written, produced and presented by Lucy and Emily Machin. This illustrated the anguish and difficulties a mother faced when mental ill health struck her son, and how this affected the whole family. She describes the difficulties she faced when trying to communicate with the mental health services and tells of how she tackled the problem, resulting in better understanding between all parties involved in the care of her son. Comments from the evaluation highlighted the importance of a sensitive approach. There was time for general discussion which is noted in the full report (available to download from the bottom of this page, as is Graham Machin's paper 'Carers and Confidentiality - Law and Good Practice') From the discussions of the day from both carers and professionals The Carers Council - Allies in Adult Mental Health have put together the following recommendations for action to take forward to the Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust, Social Services and Primary Care Trusts. 1. The Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust produce a protocol which includes a response to the issues that have been raised by the conference, which applies to all mental health professionals and is inculcated into the secondary and primary care services at the interfaces with those who suffer mental ill health. All those involved in the care of those with mental ill health should be involved in developing this protocol. The Carers Council and Graham Machin (on a voluntary basis) are very willing to assist in this process. 2. Since principles and guidelines for good practice are not enough in themselves, there needs to be a programme of training for all professionals involved in the care of those with enduring mental ill health, at every level and for carers. This training should be designed to develop a new awareness of the various ways in which the problem of confidentiality can be addressed. The content of the training should be developed by carers and professionals and delivered by carers and professionals. 3. This training needs to be followed up with monitoring of its success and enforcement of its principles. There are tensions between the principles of confidentiality and team working of professionals which need to be acknowledged and addressed. The existing framework in which confidentiality issues are addressed has some bad practice and the training needs to create new good practice. 4. There needs to be a process of monitoring of these changes as they affect service delivery and effective management, which provides the resources needed and the breadth of vision to support staff and carer support organisations as they are introduced. This is not an easy or short process but it will be supported by carers. It will be supported by professionals who wish to see the carers role in supporting their relatives acknowledged. The Conference ended with time to relax with tea, cakes and time for a swim.
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