Experiences of carers of people with Serious Mental Illness (SMI)

This report summarises our findings of the second year of our three-year project looking at the experiences of carers of people with Serious Mental Illness (SMI).

In this year we focused on young carers (under the age of 18), those under the age of 45 and carers who have English as a second language, to see how they can be better supported. We also spoke to senior staff members at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) to see how support services for carers of people with SMI could be improved.

Across all groups, we found that carers faced a number of challenges due to the unpredictability of the illnesses and the lack of understanding about their impacts.

We heard that:

• Young carers face a lack of recognition and information to understand the behaviour of those they are caring for
• Those who have English as a second language have difficulty accessing financial support
• Carers under the age of 45 struggle with looking after loved ones with SMI alongside other family commitments
• Mental health support staff are challenged by large caseloads and the clinical record system currently in use

We have made a number of recommendations, including:

1. Improve support and recognition of young carers
2. Improve consent procedures and communication with carers in crisis situations
3. Improve the electronic patient record system to make it easier to record and view carer details
4. Produce more written information for young carers about SMIs
5. Staff should ensure that consideration is given to carers’ other responsibilities

In response to our findings, the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust have outlined a number of initiatives that have been implemented to ‘ensure carers are recognised, recorded within the clinical record, valued and included across NSFT services’.

These include improvements to better capture carer information, establishing a group to oversee progress, setting clear targets for carer identification and working with partners to better support young carers and ensure they are recorded correctly in the electronic patient record.