Patient Representatives or Carer Representatives (x1) The Quality Network for Mental Health Rehabilitation Services (Rehabilitation)

The Royal College of Psychiatrists is seeking Patient and Carer Representatives to join the Quality Network for Mental Health Rehabilitation Services (Rehabilitation) as Workers. The successful applicants will have recent lived experience of rehabilitation services or caring for someone with mental illness.

The patient and carer representatives will be integral to the Network working with the project team, to support the various activities of the project and advocating for the patient group.

About the Rehabilitation Network

The Quality Network for Mental Health Rehabilitation Services is a quality improvement and accreditation project that works with rehabilitation services all around the UK and Ireland. 

The main aim of the project is to drive up the quality of care in inpatient mental health services and to provide a platform to connect services throughout the UK and Ireland, to share good practice and to enable teams to learn from each other. Inpatient teams through a supportive process of self- and peer-review to assess how the service is performing against an agreed set of quality standards.

The main stages of the project are outlined below:

Setting standards for specific mental health services: The standards provide a framework on what a good service looks like and are used to measure quality. For example, a standard on patient information might state ‘patients are offered a summary of their care plan’, this standard would then be measured and if a mental health team is not meeting the standard, the network will support them to put changes in place to meet it in the future. 

Teams then go through a self-review period: at this point services mark themselves against each standard and the project then obtains feedback from staff, patients and carers from questionnaires based on the standards. 

Teams then receive a peer review: This involves mental health staff, patient and/or carer representatives visiting another mental health service for a day to look around, interview people and take part in group discussions. People going on peer reviews, whether clinicians, patients or carers, all receive full training and support from the project team. These are day long visits which follow a clear structure and are facilitated by an experienced lead.

Teams will then receive a written report: The project team write reports which summarise the achievements of the service as well as areas they need to improve upon. The reports are sent back to the service so that they can learn from the findings.

Accreditation Committee: Each network has its own Accreditation Committee which accredits services based on the evidence gathered during the self- and peer review. 

Advisory Group - Each network has its own Advisory Group comprising of professionals who represent key interests and areas of expertise relevant to the network, and patients and carers who have experience of using the services the network focuses on. The purpose of the group is to advise and further the work of the network.

Learning events – The project holds events so that people in particular areas of mental health can share ideas and help each other improve ways of working. Patients and carer representatives are often involved in these events, with the potential for dedicated workshops being run by patient and carers about their experiences and how this can support service improvement.

The patient and carer representative role within the Network

The views, ideas, skills and experience of people who have used these services are vital in every part of our work.  As part of this role, you will be closely involved with the Network and particularly with the project team, to engage the wider membership and partner organisations in advocating for the Rehabilitation patient group.