They work with the families of children and young people receiving inpatient mental health care at Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) and five other providers in the east of England. The organisations are part of the East of England Provider Collaborative for specialist mental health services.
All four Family Ambassadors are non-clinical professionals who have had personal experience of loved ones having been cared for by child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).
They have supported around 330 families across the east of England since the team launched in September 2022, of which 109 had loved ones under the care of EPUT’s CAMHS services.
Overall, they have supported more than 1,650 individual family members across the region and work with 50 family members on average every month.
Following their success, EPUT is now recruiting Family and Carer Ambassadors for the Trust’s adult mental health inpatient wards as well as CAMHS services in Essex to support patients’ families.
Louise Garner (pictured left), People Participation Lead for the East of England Provider Collaborative and a Regional Family Ambassador, said: “We know that it can be a stressful time for families when children are admitted to the hospital so to make things a bit easier we support families from the point of admission until shortly after discharge, in a way which is flexible and suits everyone’s needs.
“As a parent or carer, they will have a unique perspective on the care needs of their child or young person.
“Our role is to ensure that the voices of families are heard and they feel empowered to become an equal partner in their child or young person’s care.”
The Family Ambassadors support families to work with clinical teams to plan their loved one’s care.
They also provide practical and emotional support, including helping families understand the inpatient system and processes and their rights, and ensuring they are receiving any financial support they are entitled to such as Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independent Payments.
Louise said: “It can be a daunting time for many parents if their child is admitted to a CAMHS inpatient service and naturally they will have lots of questions about how their child will be supported and cared for.
“Having lived experience helps us understand the families. The best part of my role is seeing the development of family members who find their voice and feel they can share their journey, supporting other parents, siblings and carers.”
Julie Pashley (pictured right), one of the four Family Ambassadors supporting families at EPUT’s CAMHS inpatient services in Colchester and Rochford, said: “My daughter was admitted and treated in two adolescent units over the course of two years, one of which was in Essex.
“It was a really distressing time and there were lots of professionals coming into our lives and we weren’t always sure who was who and what their role in our daughter’s care was.
“Having gone through the system and come out the other side and in a much better position, I have an understanding of how the system works, including how the community teams link with the inpatient units and who is responsible for what.
“I know what an admission process looks like and what a discharge process looks like.
“Being able to share the knowledge that I gained with parents who are starting their journey gives purpose to the trauma that we went through as a family.
“Being able to say to them ‘I get it’ and meaning it is really rewarding.”
The Family Ambassadors also attend conferences and awareness events, and deliver workshops on behalf of the Provider Collaborative. This enables them to share best practice and ideas for enhancing quality of care and support for patients and their families and carers.
The East of England Provider Collaborative Family Ambassador model follows a model co-produced by the Parent Council and NHS England Quality Improvement Taskforce.
To find out more about our new Family and Carer Ambassador roles and to apply, visit our Vacancies page.