Triangle of Care
The Guide
The new 2nd Edition of the Triangle of Care has been launched. The new guide can now be used across all mental health services, not only inpatient, and includes a new universal self-assessment tool as well as guidance notes. In addition the guide now includes new good practice examples from across the mental health care pathway.
The guide is available for download here as a PDF version and a word version which is best suited for the practical use of self-assessing.
The Triangle of Care, Carers Included: A Guide to Best Practice in Mental Health Care in England, Second Edition (776 KB)
Toc 23 4 13 1 Version 3 In Word (632 KB)
The Triangle of Care guide was launched in July 2010 as a joint piece of work between Carers Trust and the National Mental Health Development Unit emphasizing the need for better local strategic involvement of carers and families in the care planning and treatment of people with mental ill-health.
The Triangle of Care approach was developed by carers and staff to improve carer engagement in acute inpatient and home treatment services. The guide outlines key elements to achieving this as well as examples of good practice. It recommends better partnership working between service users and their carers, and organisations.
The guide received further validation when it was included Carers Strategy refresh in November 2010 and No Health without Mental Health in February 2011. In addition we have had enquiries from as far away as New Zealand about how to go about adopted the Triangle of Care standards in their services.
The National Project
The success of the guide has led to Carers Trust securing funding to develop it as a clear project which isn’t restricted to inpatient and home treatment services but is working across the entire mental health care pathway including specialist services; through a national steering group Carers Trust is supported to roll out the project across England. Regional events have been held in all parts of England (2010-2012) inviting mental health service providers, their staff, carers and services users to come together to discuss the benefits of the project and how it can be implemented in their local service.
England Regional Groups
Regional groups have been established in all parts of England; so far 46 mental health trusts and over 30 third sector carers’ organisations are involved. The group works in partnership to share good practice and problem solve to work towards implementing the Triangle of Care standards in mental health services. If your organisation is interested in joining your regional group please email the project lead Ruth Hannan: rhannan@carers.org
The Triangle of Care Membership Scheme
As the number of mental providers working to embed the Triangle of Care standards in their organisation continues to grow; Carers Trust felt it was important to offer some recognition of this work and developed the Triangle of Care membership scheme. A three stage recognition process for services who commit to self-assessing their existing services and action planning to ensure the Triangle of Care standards are achieved.
Information on how to join the membership scheme and what the expectations are for those organisations that do can be found here:
Triangle of Care Membership Scheme Application Form (186 KB) Triangle Of Care Membership Scheme Guidance (284 KB)
Mental Health Trusts who have joined the Triangle of Care Membership Scheme (updated March 2013) are:
Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust
Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust
Devon Partnership NHS Trust
Berkshire Healthcare
Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust
Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust
Resources
'Triangle of Care' Carers Included: A Guide to Best Practices in Acute Mental Health Care (681 KB)
Following on from the launch of the Triangle of Care in July 2010, Carers Trust has produced a project update for professionals to see how the project is developing and how they can get involved.
The 'Triangle of Care' Project Update (289 KB)
Hear what people have to say about Triangle of Care Watch this video from an event organized by CWP in partnership with The Princess Royal Trust aimed at strengthening and building partnerships with carers and families.
Leaflets and Poster Templates Promoting Triangle of Care
Network Partners, carers organisations and mental health service providers can now promote the Triangle of Care to carers, professionals and service users with these specially designed leaflets and posters.
The leaflets and posters include: a leaflet for carers (3.2 MB), a leaflet for professionals (3.2 MB), a leaflet for service users (2.8 MB), an A4 (1.4 MB) and A3 (1.8 MB) poster. These leaflets and posters can be downloaded and used locally as there is space for contact details and an organisation’s logo to promote the national messages of the Triangle of Care project.
List of MH Trusts
We are working with mental health providers and third sector partners to improve the experiences of mental health carers. As a part of this project we have established regional groups bringing together statutory mental health providers and third sector partners to share good practice.
For a list of these regions and the Trusts that fall under each, visit this page.
Further Information
The following documents have been created by Alan Worthington, for the benefit of carers and professional service providers.
Confidentiality and sharing (34 KB) Hot issues for carers (39 KB) Carers' in the Triangle of Carer - A presentation (261 KB)
