Community mental health service Essay

Describe how three key professionals could be involved in planning support for individuals/Mr. Ali There are three key professionals working with Mr. Ali and supporting him through his decisions. They are also working together with each other to put together a support plan for Mr. Ali. The three key professionals are; a community psychiatric nurse, support worker and dietician. Each has a different role in the planning support for Mr. Ali as they are all supporting Mr. Ali with different aspects of his health and well-being. A Community Psychiatric Nurse is fully trained and has many years experience in a hospital setting before going out into the community. Their experience would have been on psychiatric wards in hospitals. The role of the Community Psychiatric Nurse is to visit people in the community, usually in the patient’s own home but can also be clinic based. CPN’s are normally the patient’s first point of contact as they are there to support people who are experiencing a difficult time in their lives. They also visit patients in the community who are in good health to ensure they are okay. A CPN administers medication to patients and ensure they know the reason to why they are taking then and when they should take them. A CPN does not only support the patient but also family, friends and carers. This role is valuable as it helps them to understand and cope with any illnesses the patient has. CPN’s also take referrals from GP’s, psychiatrists and inpatient wards as the CPN will support the patient and help them get back out into the community and from then on the CPN is usually the patients key-worker. In regards to Mr. Ali, the community psychiatric nurse will visit him at home to ensure his emotional and psychological state is not going to be jeopardised due to him taking part in the sponsored walk. The CPN will also ensure Mr. Ali is still taking his medication correctly and support him through any tough times he is facing. The CPN’s role as a nurse and key-worker when participating in the planning of Mr. Ali’s support plan is, to review Mr. Ali’s progress and assess if all of Mr. Ali’s needs are being addressed. This involves, getting feedback from Mr. Ali about how positive or negative the help and support is that he is receiving from the mental health team. The key-worker can be anyone who is a member of the community mental health team; a psychiatrist, CPN, Occupational Therapist, Social Worker or psychologist. A support worker is someone who supports people with different need in their everyday lives. They support them in many ways and in many situations. They focus on the needs of the service users by supporting them, giving time to the service user and promote their recovery or support them through illness. The role of a support worker is to; promote the independence of the service user, provide companionship and friendships whilst providing practical and regular support. A support worker will provide support with daily living and facilitate people living normal lives. A support worker plays a huge role in any service user’s life and helps them gain access to resources such as; day centres, support groups etc. If a service user was to deteriorate then their support worker will help identify this and then supporting the service user when they are going through treatment. Health promotion information is also provided by a support worker. In regards to Mr. Ali, a support worker working with mental health is known as a STR; a support, time and recovery worker. The STR will work as a team who focuses directly on Mr. Ali and provide mental health services. Even though Mr. Ali lives independently, his STR will support him to keep his independence. The STR would need to have a good relationship with Mr. Ali, providing companionship and friendship, and then they will be able to provide regular and practical support. Mr.Ali attends a day centre and to gain access to this, the STR would have helped Mr. Ali. The STR will give Mr. Ali all the support he need with daily living whilst facilitating Mr. Ali to live an ordinary life. If Mr. Ali was to start having a relapse his STR would help identify the early signs and report it to other health professionals involved in Mr. Ali’s care and support. The STR would the support Mr. Ali with any treatment he is involved in. When Mr. Ali attends the day centre, his support worker may be with him at times to provide emotional support and could also act as an advocate. As Mr. Ali’s STR, they will be there to support Mr. Ali through anything he finds difficult in his daily life and support him with tasks when needed. The STR will put their views across to other professionals and Mr. Ali when in the process of creating a support plan. He will be able to pass on his concerns about Mr. Ali and also what he thinks Mr. Ali’s strengths are. The STR will put a lot of information into a support plan as they would know Mr. Ali best due to building a strong compassionate friendship and due to being more involved in Mr. Ali’s personal life than other professionals. Whilst being involved in the support plan the STR will promote Mr. Ali’s rights, maintain confidentiality and promote equal opportunities, ensuring Mr. Ali is being treated with respect and dignity, which is part of ethical practice. A dietician is a trained professional who enables and empowers people to make informed and practical choices about the food they eat and lifestyle choices. They are trained in hospital and community settings and usually employed by the NHS. They can also work in the food industry research and education, and also on a freelance basis. Dieticians must be registered before working with anyone who is referred to them. Their role includes going through a practical application of nutrition with individuals, promoting the well-being of both individuals and the community; this will help to prevent nutrition related problems. Dieticians can also diagnose individuals with nutrition related problems and disease, and are also involved with dietary treatment of disease. Their main responsibilities include; working with individuals with special dietary needs, evaluating and improving treatments. They also use a social marketing approach to inform the public about nutrition and offer unbiased advice. They are there to also educate patients, clients, other health professionals and groups in the community. The use of mass media is used a lot by dieticians; leaflets, adverts, posters, billboards, radio advertisements, television adverts and many more forms of media are used and this is how dieticians promote well-being, inform the public, educate and give advice. In regards to Mr. Ali, he wants to become healthier as he wants to help raise money for the day centre he attends. He will be helping raise the money by participating in a 20 mile sponsored walk. He has taken this very seriously and wants to do his absolute best in achieving his goal. The event is taking place in three months time and within this time Mr. Ali wants to gradually improve his walking distance. The main support he wants is with his diet. He wants support and advice on healthy eating; this will be part of his preparations. He wants to know what meals, drinks and snacks are best for him to keep his energy levels up but not empty calories which will make him gain weight. To help Mr. Ali with this, the dietician will advise him on what is a good way to maintain his weight and raise his energy levels. Dieticians sometimes do this by working with the service user to create a healthy eating plan. This will consist of what Mr. Ali will eat each day, Mr. Ali will be involved in the whole process. Mr. Ali will be given leaflets full of nutritional advice and the dietician will also talk to Mr. Ali about any bad habits he has, what foods he eats more of, what his food weaknesses are and if he does any physical exercise. The dietician would have to take into consideration that Mr. Ali cannot be pushed too hard or become distressed due to his mental health illness. The dietician needs to respect Mr. Ali’s choice and treat him with dignity. Mr. Ali’s rights should not be infringed and the dietician should not use and abuse their power; just because Mr. Ali has come to the dietician for support and advice, it does not mean the dietician can control what Mr. Ali eats or controls what he does in his personal life. All the dietician should do is give advice and support Mr. Ali with his preparations. The dietician can review Mr. Ali’s progress before the event begins. They can do this when they feel Mr. Ali will need more advice and support. It may start off as every two weeks then move to once a month depending on his progress and health. The role of the dietician when participating in the process of creating Mr. Ali’s support plan is, to put forward his thoughts on how he thinks the healthy eating and preparation for the 20 mile sponsored walk will affect his health. He can put forward whether they think it would be too much pressure on Mr. Ali or if it will be for his mental and emotional state. Together all three professionals can determine, with Mr. Ali present, what the best option is for Mr. Ali and how he can participate in the event without it affecting his health and well-being. When working together all professionals must consider Mr. Ali’s individuals rights and treat him as an individual. If he is not treated with respect and dignity, or not treated as an individual then he will feel his personal identity has been stripped from him. Taking a holistic approach will ensure that all Mr. Ali receiving a person centred care.