Building collaborative cultures of care

within NSW mental health services

Back to accessibility links

Action areas for collaborative cultures

Accountability

Accountable organisations and services:

  • form active partnerships with people with lived experience of mental health issues and caring, families and kinship groups to identify opportunities for care, practice and service improvements
  • use collaborative approaches such as co-design and co-production with a focus on measuring, reporting and improving the experience of people with lived experience and caring, families and kinship groups, and
  • focus on measuring, reporting and improving the experience of people with lived experience and caring, families and kinship groups.

Accountability actions


Collaborative workplace culture

A collaborative workplace culture is built on respect for people with lived experience, their families, kinship groups and carers, and:

  • recognises the expertise of people with lived experience
  • ensures their voices are heard, valued and acted upon
  • supports people with lived experience to plan and lead their own care
  • acknowledges staff strengths
  • supports staff with opportunities to be involved in processes to improve care
  • supports carers by informing carers of support services available, and
  • illustrates effective and active collaboration between people with lived experience, their service providers, and their support network which includes peer workers.

Collaborative workplace culture actions


Healthy and therapeutic environments

Mental health illness recovery is aided by physical environment upgrades and refurbishments that:

  • support people with lived experience to self-manage
  • promote healthy lifestyles including diet, exercise and inclusion
  • monitor and reduce health risks such as smoking, obesity, inactivity and metabolic syndrome, and
  • promote collaboration and interaction among people with lived experience and caring, families and kinship groups.

Healthy and therapeutic environments actions


Leadership

Leadership for collaborative cultures ensures:

  • staff are supported to collaborate with people with lived experience and caring, families and kinship groups
  • all levels from within the organisation are committed to work in active partnership with people with lived experience, their families, carers and kinship groups
  • organisations have accountability and governance structures in place to monitor and make changes to organisational and/or clinical approaches as appropriate, and
  • organisations are prepared to collaborate on service design, monitoring, evaluation and delivery.

Leadership actions


Systems, practices and care planning

Systems, practices and care planning support collaborative cultures by:

  • prioritising communication and collaboration with people with lived experience when making care delivery decisions
  • working in partnership for recovery and safety, including open discussions about potential deterioration, at-risk behaviours and practices, to establish a range of options for support and management
  • collaboratively preparing plans of care (including safety and wellness plans) to reduce the use of seclusion and restraint, and
  • the implementation of REACH (Recognise, Engage, Act, Call, Help is on its way) assists consumers, their family and carer/s to escalate concerns with staff about worrying changes in a person’s condition, alerting the need for careful attention and review.

Systems, practices and care planning actions