On the 9th July 2019 at the Friends Meeting House, Manchester the ‘Mental Health Carers Workshop: The way Forward’ took place. The event brought together people of different backgrounds with different experiences to discuss how we can work together to make real change happen.
The reason for having this event was the recognition that despite policies, clinical guidelines, and evidence based interventions, relatives and carers of people with severe mental health problems still feel excluded from services and struggle to get the support they need.
We aimed to create a space for carers, relatives, friends, family and other stakeholders to discuss what is needed for real change to happen.
In the morning, we heard from a range of experts including carers, relatives, charities, clinicians and researchers who outlined innovative approaches from different areas.
In the afternoon there were interactive discussions which explored how we can make change happen in delivering policy, by using networks and organisations, doing research, using digital interventions, in the NHS and involvement and outcomes.
We finished the day with a panel discussion with some of our speakers from the morning, and then made pledges on what action we would take from this.