Case studies
Auchinlea - developing the project
In the autumn of 2006 Nurse Team Leader Paul Meecham and members of the Community Mental Health Team at Auchinlea House, were becoming increasingly concerned about the poor take-up of advance statements in their catchment area. The nursing team discussed the issue at one of their meetings. They agreed that the situation was never going to improve unless some way was found of giving service users more information about advance statements and of building up their trust.
The idea
Charge Nurse Iain Jones proposed a series of small group sessions at Auchinlea House which would tell people about their rights under the 2003 Act to make an advance statement and to nominate a Named Person. Each session would also be an opportunity to create closer relationships with service users and put them in touch with those who could help them prepare an advance statement. Those who attended would have an information pack to take away and key workers would follow up the meeting by talking to them about their personal requirements. Key workers would also help service users to write an advance statement if that was what they wanted. The idea was readily embraced by the nursing team and other members of the Auchinlea multi-disciplinary team.
Staff Nurse Jackie Brown volunteered to support Charge Nurse Jones in taking the idea forward and putting it into practice.
The plan
Jackie and Iain discussed the proposal with centre operations manager Donald Macleod, who immediately offered his full support and made all the necessary resources available. Donald shared Jackie and Iain's enthusiasm for the scheme –with the proviso that it must fit in with existing systems of care, support and documentation.
It was vital to keep all members of the multi-disciplinary team informed about the new scheme so that they would all be able to contribute to its success. Key workers were to play a particularly important role in explaining the purpose of the meeting and in encouraging service users to attend. Listen to team members talking about how to get messages across to service users
