Triangle of Care Best Practice Day

During the first week of MPFT’s Big Celebration Month we celebrated with the Triangle of Care Best Practice Day which was held virtually on Wednesday 7 June 2023. This event coincided with National Carers Week, the perfect opportunity to highlight and acknowledge the contribution carers make to society and also the work which the Trust has achieved in implementing the Triangle of Care standards.

It is estimated that there over 5,000,000 unpaid carers in England and Wales alone, the work that each and every one of them does can never be underestimated and their contributions are vital when providing full, holistic, patient centred care.

As a trust, we have signed up to the Carers Trust membership scheme and are committed to being carer inclusive. The day was a fantastic opportunity to share all the good work over the past 18 months to implement and embed the triangle of care standards. We had presentations from a wide range of MPFT staff highlighting what the triangle of care has achieved so far and how it has been implemented within the clinical settings across the Trust.?We also heard from carers first hand who kindly shared their very personal journeys and how they are working alongside the Involvement Team to enable us to further embed the inclusion of carers in patient care.

The event was hosted by Marie Ryder, Head of Quality Governance & Engagement with members of the Clinical Audit and Involvement Teams working in the background supporting the day.

Liz Lockett, Chief Nurse and Director of Quality & Professional Leadership, opened the event by sharing her experience as a mental health nurse, the importance of the relationship between her as a practitioner and what being a member of the Triangle of Care means to MPFT.?

“Ultimately as we know, evidence has shown that carer engagement does lead to better outcomes for not just those people using our services, but also for those carers who day in day out are really engaged and involved in that person's wellbeing”.

Liz concluded saying that: “my ambition is that this becomes something that is embedded, that it's something that we don't have to think about, that we give people, our practitioners, the rights to say you can have that triangular relationship rather than linear relationship. And ultimately I would like us to be able to achieve that three star rating from the Carers Trust that demonstrates that those standards had truly been embedded across the trust”.

I think we know we've got a way to go, but we know that the reasons for doing this and the evidence is that it leads to better outcomes and actually it supports us as people involved in delivering care to do our job in a much better way”.

We were really pleased to have our guest speaker Sharon Spurling with us who is a Triangle of Care UK Programme Lead for the Carers Trust.?

Alongside our guest speakers, we had presentations on the day from:

·???????Jack Barber – A carers personal journey

·???????Patricia Callaghan - Patient & Public Contributor and Lived Experience Partner

·???????Steve Hazeldine – Clinical Audit Team Lead

·???????Sharon Madden – Ward Manager, Holly Ward

·???????Jenny Lench – Involvement Manager

·???????Helen Klich & Louise Crompton – Involvement Facilitators

·???????Staff Nurse Courtney Taylor – Showcasing Chebsey ward

·???????Dr Anne Maclachlan - Clinical and Care Director. Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin Care Group

·???????Lisa Wilson – Quality Lead, Telford & Wrekin Community Mental Health Services

·???????Staff Nurse Linda Gregory and Diversional Therapist Anna Chawner, Jackfield ward

·???????Faith Edensor-Ward, Ward Manager and Emily Elson, Professional Lead for Lived Experience. Kinver ward

·???????Marilyn Jones – Lived Experience Partner of being a carer

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Reflections from Sharon Spurling;

“I've seen today what I would say is almost a textbook demonstration of how to embed the triangle of care in all your services, all your settings, and to do it in partnership between yourselves with carers and with patients, service users”.

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Simmy Akhtar, Non-Executive Director provided reflections and closing summary of the day saying:

“We’ve heard from so many wonderful people today, it's absolutely impossible to summarise all of it. ?One of the key messages that came through from all the carers was that they want to be seen and heard so that they can support their loved ones as best as possible.

It’s great to be focusing on the triangle of care during our big celebration month and to highlight the great initiatives that are taking place across the trust”.

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A recording of the event is available upon request from the Involvement Team if you weren’t able to join on the day. Email [email protected]