YOUNG PERSON INVOLVEMENT

At Care in Mind, involving the young people we work with in their care and our service development is central to our ethos. We know that often young people who come to us may have had difficult experiences in services and feel like their voices haven’t been heard. We want a placement at Care in Mind to feel different and most importantly, involvement needs to be meaningful and not tokenistic.

What is different about Care in Mind?

  • We really listen to what you have to say
  • We will involve you in all the plans we make about your care
  • We will help you to set goals about the things that matter to you
  • We want you to feel valued and cared about
  • Our placements are lovely houses which are homely places to live
  • We have staff with the skills to help you to stay safe and to make progress
  • We avoid ‘hands on’ approaches and instead use lots of other skills to help you with your risks

 

  • We try to create a culture where both young people and staff respect one another
  • We have a specialist clinical team and skilled residential staff who will be involved in your care
  • We can help you to stay connected to the people and places that are important to you
  • We will help you toward independence – to go to college, get a job, do some voluntary work, move into your own flat to name just a few!

Service User Involvement Coordinator

Our Service User Involvement Coordinator is an expert by experience. Her role at Care in Mind is to ensure young people’s voices are heard, and that they are truly involved in all aspects of their care. She also ensures young people are involved in our service development and improvement plans. 

She coordinates a number of projects that young people can get involved in while at Care in Mind – for as long as they want to or even after they’ve moved on if they wish! Some examples of previous projects include:

  • Consequences Consultation Project
  • Recruitment and Selection
  • Charity fundraising activities
  • YP Newsletter
  • Policy feedback and development
  • YP handbook design
  • Improving our therapy spaces
  • House audits

Young Person’s Champions

We have recently appointed two Young Person’s Champions, who are both former Care in Mind service users. This is a flexible, paid role, designed to allow young people to use their knowledge and expertise to improve the experiences of other young people being supported by Care in Mind.

The aim of the role is to:

  • Act as a representative for young people in service
  • Ensure their voice is central in service design and delivery
  • Train our staff (in conjunction with the Service User Involvement Coordinator) as part of the induction process on what service user involvement really means.

The role is open to all young people who have been through Care in Mind’s services.