Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust The Care Programme Approach Information for service users and carers In partnership with: Barnet Council Enfield Council Haringey Council
The Care Programme Approach (CPA) What is the CPA? It is a means of co-ordinating all of your care to try to meet your individual, cultural and gender needs arising from your mental health problems.. Who is it for? Not all people receiving care from the Trust will be on CPA. If you only use a single service such as psychology or psychotherapy services you are not likely to be on CPA. However, if your needs are complex and you have assistance from more than one service, you are likely to be formally placed onto CPA. How does it work? When you first come into contact with mental health services you will be assessed to find out about your health and social care needs. A named person (a care co-ordinator) will be there to support you and be your main point of contact. A written plan for your care will be drawn up with you. There will be regular reviews of your care. The Trust is committed to the principles of New Ways of Working. One of the key ideas in New Ways of Working is that responsibility and accountability for your care is shared around the members of the multi-disciplinary team looking after you. Page 2
This means that the role of the consultant psychiatrist is no longer to act as the clinical team leader responsible and accountable for all users of a particular team. Consultant psychiatrists now provide a specialist function within the team. On some occasions it will be necessary for the team's consultant psychiatrist to be present at CPA reviews, but on other occasions it will not be necessary, if they have not been particularly involved in your care. At the CPA pre-meeting you can let your care coordinator know who you think should be present at your review. What is a care co-ordinator? Your care co-ordinator is the person who: will normally be a member of the team providing your care or treatment. If there is more than one member involved with you, one of them will be the care co-ordinator will be responsible for co-ordinating or overseeing your care plan, making sure it meets your needs will be responsible for ensuring contact with you is maintained will meet with you before any review meeting to discuss your needs. What will happen at my needs assessment meeting? You will meet with one or two members of the mental health team and the following will be discussed with you: your family, past physical and mental health and any contact you have had with mental health services Page 3
how you are feeling at the moment what mental health services you are using what other help you need about where you are living what benefits you get what day services/work you are attending whether you have any legal problems what medication you are on, including the effects and side effects whether you are due to have any health checks. You will be advised about options for care and treatment, where these are available. What is my part in the CPA? The CPA process is about meeting your individual needs so that we can help you recover as best you can. You have a very important role to play in the process, you can; tell your care co-ordinator if there are any changes in your health or lifestyle or if anything is worrying you help your care co-ordinator assess your needs accurately, by giving him or her as much information as possible about your past and current situation. What should be in my care plan? A list of your health and social care needs. A plan of how your needs are going to be met. The name of the person who is going to help you get what you need. Any symptoms that you or others notice as signs you are becoming unwell. What to do if you suddenly need psychatric help. What strategies you can use to help you cope. The date of the next review of your care plan. You will be given a copy of you care plan. Page 4
Your review meeting We will organise at least one review meeting a year with you. We will review your care plan regularly with you at these meetings. We will send you a letter inviting you to attend the meeting, with the details of others invited and anyone who you would like to come with you. You may ask that healthcare students or any other people not involved in your care do not attend the meeting. What will happen at my care review meeting? You will be able to: ask a carer, a friend or an advocate to come with you put forward your views and wishes about your treatment and care discuss new and different treatments and to ask questions about your care raise any concerns you may have about your care and treatment. Page 5
What are my rights? You can ask for the date of the review to be changed if it is not convenient for you or the people you need to be present. You can ask your carer, friend, relative or an advocate to support you in a CPA review meeting. Your carer or relative, with your permission, can ask for a review. You have a right to your information being kept confidential. You have a right to ask for access to the written information we keep about you. You have a right to request a second clinical opinion if you disagree with any aspect of your care. You have a right to complain about any aspect of your care to the manager of the service caring for you or to one of the Trust's complaints officers. Our Privacy Promise All information about your care and treatment will be treated as confidential. Access to your medical records will be strictly controlled. Anyone allowed to access your records will be under a legal duty to respect the confidentiality of your information. Where you have agreed for us to work with advocates or interpreters, they too will be under a legal duty to keep your information private. Page 6
For legal reasons, in exceptional circumstances; where there is a serious risk to yourself or others we may be required to share information with other organisations such as the Police, social services or the courts. We would normally discuss this with you first. Healthcare professionals are required to keep a record of the care they give you. We use an electronic system to record this information, rather than paper based systems. If the clinical team believes that your care or recovery will be harmed by linking your name to your records, they will ask for your records to be pseudonymised. An agreed pseudonym will be used instead of your real name. This would be a rare course of action, subject to the guidelines set out in the, Care Records Service Pseudonymising Policy and Procedure' Carers' Assessment If you are a carer providing regular and substantial care for a person on CPA you are entitled to have an assessment of your physical and mental health needs directly related to your caring. This will be repeated at least annually. You are also entitled to have your own written care plan, which is given to you and implemented in discussion with you. In some circumstances we may ask for your views as a carer on the risks a service user may pose. Crisis contact Tel. Nos: Barnet: 0845 389 2989 Enfield: 020 8375 1122 Haringey: 020 8442 6706 Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS): 020 8372 6400 North London Forensic Service: 0845 1114000 Page 7
You can ring for a translation Monday - Friday 9.00am - 5.00pm. Please give this number: 58939 and also for Audio, Large Print and Braille, call now on: 0800 952 0119 Produced By: Date of Publication: Review Date: Reference: Communications Team November 2010 December 2011 lc00004324