Trust Highly Commended at Good Practice Awards
A new monitoring system to ensure patients are assessed and have regular reviews of their care plan at Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust has won an award.
GMW was Highly Commended in the ‘Excellence in Care Planning Policy and Practice Standards’ category at this year’s Care Programme Approach Association (CPAA) Good Practice Awards.
People who have severe mental health problems or a range of different needs may have their care co-ordinated under a Care Programme Approach (CPA). This is a particular way of assessing, planning and reviewing someone’s mental health care needs.
GMW’s innovative monitoring system helps mental health practitioners to co-ordinate patient’s assessments, stream-line the planning process and ensure that the person who needs CPA support is involved in the assessment of their own needs so that services can work with them to provide the care that suits them best.
The system is an effective tool in ensuring CPA reviews are completed on time and that patients their carers, GPs and other agencies involved in their care are kept up-to-date and have an opportunity to contribute.
Judges described the monitoring system as a “good approach to streamlining the administrative systems around referral and assessment management and the arrangement of CPA review meetings.”
The new monitoring system was first piloted by the South Locality Functional Mental Health Team in Trafford and has since been rolled out to all the Trusts’ community mental health teams in Trafford. The system is being considered for use by all GMW’s services in Greater Manchester and the wider North West.
Gill Green, Director of Nursing and Operations for GMW, said: “We are committed to providing excellent care for both people with mental health problems and those with substance misuse issues. We are always looking at new ways we can improve the care we provide and feedback from our patients and carers underpins everything we do.
“The creation of this new monitoring system has helped to ensure patients are at the centre of their care, are informed about their different choices for care and the different types of support available to them as well as making sure care reviews are effective and completed on time.”
This is the eighth year that the CPAA has given national awards for good practice in the Care Programme Approach. GMW staff will be showcasing their work at the national CPAA event on the 25 October 2013 where they will be formally presented with their certificate. GMW can now use a kite mark in recognition of the achievement.
