Triangle of Care: supporting carers of people experiencing mental health problems in Scotland

It can be difficult providing support and/or helping someone experiencing mental health problems. Triangle of Care aims to create an alliance between service users, carers and professionals.

It can be difficult providing support and/or helping someone experiencing mental health problems. You may find yourself listening to their concerns, maybe be there when they require hospital care and treatment and see and hear how the person is behaving. You probably know the person really well so can tell when something is changing in their behaviour/attitude/appearance which might indicate that they are becoming unwell.

Unpaid carers normally have good knowledge and understanding of how a person is affected by their mental health problem. It is this information and understanding which needs to be shared with professionals working with the person experiencing a mental health problem. 

Menu of Questions for Carers supporting people with mental health problems is a resource we have developed in partnership with Support in Mind Scotland. This leaflet is designed to help you get all the information you need about the diagnosis and treatment of the person you care for:

Menu of Questions for Carers supporting people with mental health problems

The Triangle of Care in Scotland

To enable this to happen, Carers Trust Scotland developed:

The Triangle of Care: Best Practice Guide

Triangle of Care for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Guide

Triangle of Care: A step by Step Guide to Completing the Self-Assessment for in-patient areas

Triangle of Care: A step by Step Guide to Completing the Self-Assessment for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services

Triangle of Care aims to create an alliance between service users, carers and professionals. It assists staff to look at how they are identifying and supporting carers, and what needs to be done to improve/increase this. It provides frontline staff with the tools to better support carers as part of the care team and to work in partnership with organisations supporting carers.

"Having staff recognise that you are not just the wife, but also provide a lot of emotional care and support can make all the difference. I think this can only be a good thing for carers, staff and patients. I'm going to be asking my husband's team what they know about Triangle of Care."

Carer

For more information email scotland@carers.org.