The group will ensure service user and carer voices are front and centre in shaping how care is planned and delivered across the area.
It has been formed by the BLMK mental health, learning disabilities and autism collaborative and follows on from last year’s BLMK mental health, learning disability and autism service user/carers’ summit.
Two launch sessions for the group are being held on:
- Monday, February 26, at 4pm
- Thursday, February 29, at 4pm
Any service users or carers who attended the summit are invited to attend, along with any other service users or carers passionate about helping improve mental health, learning disability and autism care in the area.
These meetings will be held online on Microsoft Teams so we can include people from across Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes without the need to travel. You won’t need a Microsoft or Teams account or app to join the meeting.
Anyone who would like to take part, or anyone with questions, can contact Rachel Farrow, People Participation (PP) Lead for the collaborative, by emailing Rachel.farrow3@nhs.net or calling 07939 518777.
Rachel applied for the PP role after attending the summit as an interested carer, parent and as someone with lived experience of mental health.
“Myself and the team leading the mobilisation of the collaborative are aware there has been a delay in sharing further updates with guests who generously shared their time and insight at the summit,” she said.
“We would like to address this by inviting attendees from the summit, and other carers and service users, to join our service user and carer led group.”
Since the launch event the service user group who led the summit have worked to summarise the contributions and turn them into five key service user and carer priorities for improvement in mental health, learning disability and autism services:
The list of priorities you helped shape are:
- Improved communication
- Access to care and support is appropriate and timely
- Care is more informed, consistent, connected and seamless
- There is better access to key resources and services which empower service users
- Care is person centred and tailored around the individual and not the condition – nothing about me without me