The development of a Carer Support Worker service in forensic inpatient mental health settings

Background
The project will examine the introduction of forensic mental health carer support workers (CSW) into two partner organisations (Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust and Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust). The CSW role will be to work specifically with carers in forensic settings offering advice, support, inform and debriefing sessions for caregivers. They will also act as a liaison between carers, service users and health professionals. A recent study examined the support needs of forensic mental health carers (Reynolds et al, 2009; MacInnes et al, 2010). 63 caregivers were interviewed. The results indicated providing regular support and information was the most important need identified by this group of carers. Receiving poor information was also significantly associated with being dissatisfied with other aspects of the service and negatively impacted on their day-to-day activities (finances, employment, social activities).
Aims
To provide training and support for a dedicated carer support worker and evaluate the impact of the role and needs of carers from a variety of perspectives.
Method
The Carer Support Worker role will be evaluated over a period of twelve months. This includes a one month period for induction and training of the support worker and examination of the role over a nine month period. A discrete part of the project will be taken up with providing support for the development of the role and specific training.
To evaluate outcomes data will be collected from a variety of sources throughout the period of the project. These sources include:
• A Carer Support Worker Contact record.
• Monthly supervision and Monthly project team meetings.
• Carers Evaluation - Carers will be contacted at baseline, six months and twelve months and invited to complete the Carers Well Being and Support Scale and the General Health Questionnaire- 28. This will give information about their needs, their level of service satisfaction and the psychological health.
Analysis
The Carer Support Worker record data will be examined descriptively to identify the amount of contact with carers and the types of support /information required as well as the skills/knowledge needed by the Carer Support Workers to intervene effectively. The data from the supervision/management meetings will also be analysed descriptively and used to develop the support arrangements and any specific training for the Carer Support Workers. The Carers’ evaluation will be analysed both descriptively and inferentially to assess the amount and level of carer need, satisfaction and psychological health and also to examine the differences between the three time points and in different socio-demographic groups.
Findings:
In the initial stage, this has included developing publicity leaflets, identifying assessment tools and providing a 2 day training programme looking at the background to the project, the literature examining carers of service users with mental health problem, mental health legislation, diagnosis of mental health conditions, aetiology, treatment approaches with a specific examination of basic counselling approaches and the practical elements of the role.