KMPT commended for work with carers and retains triangle of care status

We are thrilled to uphold the highest national endorsement for a mental health trust for our long-term commitment to work with, listen to and include families and carers in the planning of care for people with enduring and complex mental health needs.

Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT) has retained its Triangle of Care two-star status after being commended for its innovative procedures and involving service users, carers or loved ones in 90% of all transformation and Quality Improvement (Qi) projects.

The Triangle of Care membership scheme was developed by Carers Trust – it is the therapeutic relationship between the service user, staff member and carer that promotes safety, supports communication and sustains wellbeing.

KMPT Strategic Lead for Allied Health Professionals, Julia Wilson said: “We recognise that family, friends and carers are experts in the needs of our service users. The Triangle of Care framework allows us to work together to achieve the best outcomes for everyone.”

The trust’s vision, ‘to provide outstanding care and to work in partnership to deliver this in the right place, for every service user, every time’, has been demonstrated by the continued collaborative work led by the Allied Health Profession leadership team.

A pending roll-out of mandatory eLearning carer modules across all services, Board level engagement, regular carer champion forums, co-production and carer awareness training for trustees were highlighted in the Carers Trust report.

KMPT’s carer reported experience measure (CREM), its reporting mechanism to the trust Board, and how the central investigation team regularly attend the Triangle of Care trust-wide patient and carer engagement groups, were also identified as recent successes. 

In the latest CREM report the overall experience as a family member, friend or carer within KMPT was rated as ‘very good’, and comments reflected that family, friends and carers felt that staff are helpful, welcoming, supportive, professional and knowledgeable.

One of the individual comments received in the CREM report stated: “The staff were very professional, supportive, informative and respectful. Nothing was too much trouble and treated us as part of the family. Exceptional care – thank you”.

Julia continued:  “We are proud to raise awareness of the valuable role family, friends and carers play in our service users’ treatment and recovery and have already seen higher engagement and improved carer confidence with the successful launch of dedicated carer leads in the inpatient environments.

“As a trust we are dedicated to constantly reviewing procedures and resources to enhance both service user and carer experience.”

The Triangle of Care accreditation is a recognition process for services who commit to self-assessing their existing services and plan and action improvements.

Trusts that join the membership scheme and complete the appropriate stages for their organisation receive an award to recognise their commitment.  For mental health trusts this is up to two stars and for trusts that are integrated, there is a third star. Further details can be found here: Triangle of Care Membership Scheme in England - Resources - Carers Trust