Staff Portal

Welcome.

This page is your dedicated area for quick access to information and resources useful for carer and service user involvement,

or for clients exploring their recovery and resilience.

A wide range of other resources is spread across our website, however your team colleagues and your clients have given us feedback that led to this starter selection.

Scroll down to explore.

Towards the bottom, you will also find a direct contact form if you wish to use that as alternative to email.

When you get to the QR code, be sure to sign up for our regular newsletter !!

Who we are, what we do,

and how and why we do it.

What is the Mental Health Forum ?

We're proud to a truly peer-led service 

Back in 1993, our founding values were centred on empowering, facilitating, supporting, and lobbying for the lived experience voice of service users and carers. We've been uniquely and deeply embedded within SHSCT since it's formation.

Those values, relationships, passion and capability remain today, and have evolved now that ALL elements  our service design, governance, improvements, delivery, and partnership clearly evidence not just peer involvement, but peer-leadership.

We are the recognised voice of lived experience in SHSCT mental health division, and our organisation is deeply embedded at all levels of planning and provision, including on the ground frontline aspects. The chart above gives a flavour of the local and regional elements of our activity.

All staff in the MH division should be familiar with, and feel comfortable contacting the Mental Health Forum and UCSIG. We operate in the community, but we also have a unique and important role INSIDE the Trust. Get in touch with questions or to arrange a 'team talk', and we can chat about how we interact with the teams and processes of Mental Health

*For general Forum enquires, or as Chair of UCSIG, your contact is:

Elaine Fogarty - MHF Development Officer

078 7626 1033   elainefogarty42@gmail.com      Or use the online form below.

Forum Manager, Karl Hughes, can be reached at lobby@mentalhealthforum.co.uk

Keep scrolling to learn about Services we  offer,

and how The Forum can help your client in their journey or in building resilience.

Hard-copy leaflets available on request

How we can help you, our staff colleagues

• We can act as an information hub for MH related signposting in the community
• We can offer direct lived experience insight
• We can act as an information hub about coproduction processes in SHSCT MH
• We can partner with you in coproduction as part of your PPI obligation
• We can share our experience and knowledge of direct lived experience
• We can listen to your ideas and comments, and feed themes into the agenda at multiple tables of influence
• We can offer places on our lived experience led suicide awareness workshops
• We can help forge links, partnerships, and networks that support your team
• and so much more...

How we can help and inform your clients & family carers

• We have a very beneficial Membership Programme that offers monthly peer-led meetings and opportunities to discuss, learn, and explore wellness topics. This offers structure, and peer support & mentorship, personal development, communication skills, and oportunities for involvement.
• Information and context about Trust services
• Signposting and information about community supports and services
• Information and connection to advocacy and advice services
• Updates on opportunities in/about mental health
• Updates on learning and resilience-building opportunities in the community
• Access to training courses and skill-building opportunities
• Support to connect with Care Opinion, 10,000voices, and SHSCT's own complaints and compliments processes
• Lived Experience involvement opportunites/feedback/story sharing
• Volunteering opportunities*

For those who choose to delve deeper, we offer lots more - including...

• Confidence and supported opportunities to add their voice and experience to the planning and development of mental health services
• Learning about recovery principles in action from other service users/carers
• Regualar peer conversation and connection with other service users/carers
• Opportunites to further develop skills and confidence for coproduction 
• Ways to identify and apply personal strengths in their local community
• Assistance to write define and write their personal recovery story
• Priority access to our 1:1 Recovery Journey Reviews or a 1:1 WRAP refreshers
• Priority access to our 'PeerChat...' service (peer support by appointment)*

           * Subject to criteria and possible wait list

Membership is personally beneficial and some who stay with us develop a strong interest in the Coproduction and direct involvement aspects of the Forum (UCSIG or other Workstream or T&F groupwork)

To facilitate this more complex activity, we can discuss progression into our unique Capacity Building Programme where members can develop their Coproduction skills and do some higher level personal developement training & experience.

We are happy to speak directly with any interested Client or Carer. you can give them our contact information and ask them to reach out to Elaine to learn more.

New Membership Registrations Welcome.

If your client is with you now, complete the form together              and the Forum will reply directly to them and answer questions.

If you would like a link to email this opportunity to your client, use this:  

http://www.thementalhealthforum.co.uk/you-can-be-involved-become-a-member/

Click HERE if you would like to send us a staff message or question.

Become a Member Today

If you live in N. Ireland, please complete form below to register interest

* May be subject to change for operational or infection control reasons

* Keep scrolling for Posters.

Scroll further down to learn more about some of these services.

What is UCSIG, and why does it matter?

About us

As part of the Forum's work, one of our service user members chairs UCSIG

(User and Carer Service Improvement Group).

Clients sho become Forum Members, and choose to progress into the Capacity Building Programme, will get experience attending and participating in UCSIG meetings.

This is a partnership structure unique to SHSCT and was established with the Forum when the Trust itself was born back in 2007. There is a public-facing element to Forum activity as with all contracted agencies, however we also have a unique inwardly-embedded function. UCSIG's independent voice and expertise is part of the collaborative leadership approach that strengthens Southern Trust Mental Health: the Forum coordinates and supports it, and it works best when All staff in the mental health division are familiar with us, and All teams have communication lines open with us.

• We know that Covid and its necessary responses and staff movements, have impacted on staff awareness of our group and what we do inside the Trust, so we are actively engaged in a process of revitalising this, as well as introducing ourselves to new staff.
• As individuals and as teams, please feel free to reach out and ask your questions or tell us about what's happening in your service. Get in touch as you plan new projects, or begin designing new resources, surveys or communications. We're here to help.
• We are rotating offers of 'team talks' or 'manager 1:1 conversations' but you can also be proactive and get in touch to get yours in the diary!!

UCSIG membership includes: service users, carers, advocates, representatives from contracted community organisations, and Trust staff. Together, we sit at the heart of a regionally unique coproduction model that supports your work, your clients, and your improvement initiatives.

We meet monthly, and have a regular interface with the collective leadership team in mental health and we have direct communication lines cross-directorate.

As appropriate, to speak to specific topics, we can also ask for the attendance of specifc staff across all areas and bands within our SHSCT mental health.

***

We frequently invite Team reps to come along and introduce new projects or developments, seek lived experience input, or even just to visit and learn a little more about what we do.    Get in touch to discuss how to arrange this.

• UCSIG is independent, and has a vital Internal role within this Trust - connecting and involving the voices of key community partners and those who use services to issues and developments as they arise. We offer context, information exchange, monitoring, and contribution.

• We provide, promote and evidence the Authentic and  Independent involvement  & voice that the YIM Mental Health Care Pathway, recent DoH Mental Health Strategy, and Trust plans celebrate and require.

• We are open to conversations and questions from frontline staff and managers alike - we are interwoven with the core work of the Forum and so can act as a 'one-stop-shop' for engagement as you move towards the outcomes in your service's Balance Score Card.

• Working with UCSIG can substantially and smoothly help you fulfil your PPI obligations. We can also advise re the good practice of returning effective and timely PPI impact reports, and re the 'closing of the loop' after availing of Lived Experience Involvement for team initiatives.

• We are  the official route by which your teams and managers in mental health get input and approval for public-facing resources and documents, with assurance that they, for example, are recovery-focused, provide content clarity, and use appropriate language and graphic design.

• We could offer input to your projects or provide a rep to your project teams.

• We are also involved in reflection and shared learning following successes or incidents, in the development of policies, internal training and induction resources, communications, and in developing pathways and services in mental health. Supporting this, we carry experience as active partners in the Towards Zero Suicide initiative (TZS) and in SHSCT Protect Life Implementation Group (PLIG) and other major local and regional workstreams.

The UCSIG agenda discusses and contributes to mental health developments, strategy, and key drivers locally and regionally, and links through its reps to multiple workstreams. We intertwine seamlessly with the core work of the Forum and multiple stakeholders to facilitate effective communication exchange and cascade.

*

Please get in touch with Elaine  elainefogarty42@gmail.com  to share any updates, news items, celebrations, events, opportunities, consultations, projects, or concerns  you may have for discussion or dissemination via UCSIG.

Scroll further down to learn about Coproduction & Recovery ethos

Other MHF Services

Keep scrolling for some useful Tools & Information for Coproduction.

The Mental Health Forum will be happy to expand on these and offer context.

Get in touch and speak with our peer staff to learn more.

The Engage website has lots of PPI & Coproduction resources.... Including:

The GREAT checklists and videos which the Forum helped create, and endorse.

And... what do we mean in SHSCT MH when we talk about              Recovery focus & Coproduction?

Over 10 years ago now, the Forum and many of your collagues were instrumental in an intiative that embraced ImROC (Implementing Recovery through Organisational Change'. Out of that regional activity came things like recovery colleges, peer support workers, and many core regional workstreams and quality improvement projects that are still active in some form today.

The Wellness Recovery Action Planning that has proved so important in the lives of service users embracing recovery, uses 5 key principles - Hope, Personal responsibility, Education, Self-advocacy, and Support.

The You in Mind Mental Health Care Pathway called on principles of Choice, Opportunity and Personal Control for service users partnering in their own care.

And the corporate values of SHSCT are Working together, Excellence, Compassion, and Openness & Honesty.

All of those things and more are completely aligned with the approaches ImROC endorsed and encouraged, and that are still deeply valued by those service users and carers who have been invovled in coproduction practice development and Recovery Focus over the past 10 years.

To learn more of the ImROC legacy you can visit HERE

We would also recommend watching video and reading materials by Rachael Perkins who expresses so well, many of the priciples and values the Forum champions.

There are many videos on the internet, but perhaps here is a place to start:

(Recorded in 2015 and lasts about 45mins)

Click here to read ImROC briefing papers

Out of the local & regional implementation of ImROC principles,

came developments such as Recovery Colleges,  Peer Support Workers, and 'recovery-focused' documents or approaches described in or aligned to the Mental Health Care Pathway. 

Language common to these includes things like

HOPE - OPPORTUNITY - CONTROL - PERSONAl RESPONSIBILITY

ImROC approaches require good PPI practice.

User-Involvement and Coproduction practice  are embedded.

"Recovery is NOT about professional intervention - it is about the journey of each person as they move past what has happened to them. Its about how those people define their own aspirations and quality of life and move to reclaim them and to grow beyond."

The question we all have to ask ourselves, whether in statutory services or the in the communtiy sector, is -

"Am I helping that person on their journey towards all that or am I getting in the way?  (Am I the travelling companion or the border guard)?"

If you haven't read the You in Mind Mental Health Care Pathway recently, you can check it out by clicking the download link below.

It shows how many of these principles and approaches can play out in real work environments and relationships without bringing additionality. The supporting resources listed at the back may also still prove relevent and useful, particularly if you are a newer member of staff wanting to gain understanding of  where current ideas on  'Recovery' 'Coproduction' 'Lived Experience' 'Carer voice' & 'Peer roles/leadership' came from.

SCIE is a recognised leader in the field of Coproduction

Co-Production is about mindset, language and culture.

It is about acknowledging and respecing that there are two types of  important and valid expertise - learned & lived - and bringing both equally into the design and improvement of services.

The Forum are leaders in coproduction practice and we also believe there are three important stages in any well coproduced project:

• Equal voice/involvement from day one of service users, carers and advocates
• Parity of access to necessary information, and timeframes that allow it to be read, considered, discussed, and full insignt experience and contribution offered.
• Closing the loop - keeping coproduction partners updated throughout, and especially at project end to reflect the impact and value of their contribution.

The Forum places immense value on careful, compassionate, and recovery focused language and embeds this along with an understanding of boundaries for safe and effective personal sharing as we work alongside clients who join our capactiy building programme. We also feed this into direct consultaton and coproduction activity and into the agenda of UCSIG.

*For clarity - When the Forum uses the term 'Coproduction' it can generally be taken to reference all three elements concurrently:

Co-design, Coproduction, and Co-delivery

We encourage the CUP model as aide memoire

(Carer, User, Professional)

And our peer representatives still encourage projects to consider Arnstein's ladder (1969) as a relevent and useful reflection tool to prevent unintentional drift towards power imbalance, paternalistic assumption, or tokenism in coproduction.

Good practice application of this model would also take in the advocates and representatives of community organisations working to represent service user or carer needs, wishes, and improvement ideas.

Via UCSIG - the Mental Health Forum can facilitate this wider CUP model in its collaborative and consultative roles with you and your teams.

Want to know more? ... 

You can use our contact form above, to request either a Team-Talk about Mental Health Forum's Capacity Building Programme or a short bespoke Team workshop session with Q&A opportunities specificially about Lived Expereince or about coproduction practice.

*For clarity*

Staff of any band who have personal direct lived experince of accessing mental health services themselves,

can also reach out in confidence for conversation about getting involved (whether employed in Trust Peer roles or not)

Your job title doesn't bar you from contributing on a personal level;

help is available to explore the many discreet and open ways to do that without clashing with your professional boundaries and responsibilites.

Those employed as Peer Support Workers or Peer Educators are warmly invited to also take membership and engage on a personal level with the Mental Health Forum - we are your service too!

Contact Elaine directly if you'd like to chat peer to peer.

The Mental Health Forum gives permission for use of this coproduced guide to be used by SHSCT teams within mental health division.

A Guide to setting up and using zoom

You can download the pdf using the link below.

Created by the Forum's Capacity Building Programme in March 2022

Enquiries regarding this document can be directed to 

Elaine: elainefogarty42@gmail.com

We are developing a new version of this website.

Please let us know what you'd find useful in your dedicated staff portal area.

• What would help you inform and signpost your clients re the Forum?
• What would help you in terms of quick access to resources or documents?