National Co-production week (1-5 July)
For the fourth year running, Co-production Week will celebrate the benefits of co-production, share good practice and highlight the contribution of people who use services and their carers in developing better public services.
The theme for 2019 is 'Sharing Power'. Co-production: "Designing, delivering and evaluating services in equal partnerships with people who use services and carers - Nothing about us without us" #coproweek
As part of National Co-Production Week, the Jam & Justice research project will be curating a series of events to showcase Greater Manchester's co-productive energies. #CoProduceGM
We take co-production seriously at GMMH and our Recovery Academy currently offers 66 courses co-designed and co-delivered by 97 tutors, 33 of which are people with lived experience of our services. We’ve also got some great examples of co-production in action throughout our services:
A project placing older people at the centre of the creative process
Manchester Camerata is working with Later Life Service and Recovery Academy to use musical engagement as a way of encouraging older people in Greater Manchester to express themselves, communicate with others and reduce their social isolation. Three groups are creating a new piece of music at the Victoria Park Centre, the Curve in Prestwich, and a Wythenshawe Community Housing scheme. Find out more about the Academy’s music course: https://www.gmmh.nhs.uk/course-list/music-health-and-wellbeing-2726/
We regularly consult with people who use our services via surveys and questionnaires. As well as engaging with them through You Said We Did programmes to express their views and influence change. 92% of service users, who responded to our Service User Experience questionnaire between January to March 2019, said they were involved in their care.
Co-production includes designing services in equal partnerships with people who use our services. Some recent feedback from our Community Inclusion Service in Manchester demonstrates how staff listened to what their service user’s needs were and focussed their support in this area to make a real difference to the service user’s “Due to physical disabilities I had not been on a bus for years. Support was provided to enable me to build my confidence on buses in the local area. I am now confident to travel independently by bus to visit my friends and family in the community, allowing me more freedom. This has also reduced the cost of travel, as previously I was only confident to travel in taxis.”
People who use our services should also be involved in designing our services and we have a number of paid roles for service user and carers to get involved.
317 service users and 80 carers were involved in service user and carer engagement activities between January to March 2019. This included being involved in meetings, audits & inspections, recruitment & selection and training. For the purposes of shared learning.
Find out more about the roles and opportunities for service users and carers: www.gmmh.nhs.uk/roles-for-service-users-and-carers
Co-production is an equal relationship between people who use services and people who help deliver them. The Trust employs 119 volunteers, 41 of which are Activity Assistants in direct response to feedback from our in-patients that boredom is an issue on mental health wards. 34 of our volunteers are in a peer mentor role. Peer mentors offer support from a position of real understanding due to shared experiences.
Claire Watson, Trust Lead for the Recovery Academy, Service User Engagement and Volunteering, said: “Co-production includes involving service users and carers in decisions about their care and treatment. Our peer mentors have developed self-help interventions for service users to use on their own or with their peer mentor, and young people from our specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) have designed a Recovery folder for our service users to keep their care plan and these resources in.
“We have created a paid role for someone with lived experience to connect with local service user and carer groups to ensure their feedback reaches the Trust Executive Management Team. This role will also connect service user and carer groups with each other, so they can learn from each other. This role was created as a direct response to a suggestion from a local service user forum.
“Thank you to all the people who work alongside us every day to co-deliver services for people experiencing mental health and/or addiction difficulties.”
GMMH’s Service User Engagement Strategy (2018-21) supports Think Local Act Personal’s Ladder of Co-production, encouraging transparency between staff and service users about different levels of involvement.
Read more, share and get involved. www.scie.org.uk/co-production/week
