In what is believed to be a sector-first, Elysium Healthcare today proudly launches two sets of care and treatment standards for its CYPMHS services which have been fully co-produced with patients and their families and carers.
Regional CYPMHS Quality Managers Colleen Fahy and Priya Thakrar explain more:
“The development of the standards really began back in 2023 when we launched co-production
across our CYPMHS and other services. Part of those was getting people – parents and carers, service users, experts by experience, staff and NHS commissioners and family was to encourage them to start thinking about working together and what areas were important to them, where good practice could be shared and what we needed to improve on.
“We found that for young people and their families and carers, there were themes about communication, understanding the service and what a care and treatment pathway looks like. They wanted to know more about what it means to be admitted to a service, what happens at each stage and where they can get support.
“That was where the Care and Treatment Standards Service Users and the Treatment Standards for Families and Carers came from. Working together, we developed a project to create standards that we launch today – fittingly on Youth Mental Health Day – and which we collectively as an organisation pledge to strive to meet at all times.
“To create the standards we held a range of workshops and sessions with young people which looked at the pathway of care and treatment from pre admission through to discharge and what was good and what could be improved. That was held virtually. We also held workshops for parents and carers and family ambassadors as well as social workers on site. They bridge the gap between families and the services and were fundamental in advocating for families and carers.
“We also gathered data from surveys to make sure we had input from as wide a group as possible. Following that we worked alongside the organisational Expert By Experience Sue Dennison to make sure that we were considering everything from a person-centred perspective and not being clinically led. The Family Ambassadors were our clinical friends in developing the family and carer standards.
“As part of the Standards we have developed a range of accessible resources to guide families and carers through what they can expect at each stage and the Standards they can expect. Accessible and interesting resources such as posters and videos have been developed to communicate those standards.
“Throughout the process we have learned that less is more; people can often feel overloaded with information when they or their loved one is being admitted to hospital and they have shared it’s not very helpful to them. Visual resources and information is better, they have told us. And what we think is important isn’t necessarily what a patient or their family feels is important. The Standards recognise that.
“To celebrate the launch of the Standards we have asked people and the services which support them, along with families and carers to create a celebration event to mark their publication. We have developed a pledge which our senior team members are signing as a mark of our commitment to achieving these Standards.
“We will continue to review the Standards and how each of our CYPMHS services is meeting them. We will be working with sites through 2025 to review and support reaching the standards being launched”
