Service User Advisory Group
&
Care Pathways Involvement
Psychosis CAG
Anne Kirby, Psychosis CAG
1
What is the Psychosis Clinical
Academic Group (CAG)?
The Psychosis CAG is a management
department which delivers SLaM’s
services for people with a diagnosis of
psychosis (e.g. schizophrenia and
schizoaffective disorder.)
The CAG covers Croydon, Lambeth
Southwark and Lewisham.
Anne Kirby, Psychosis CAG
2
What does the CAG do?
The CAG brings together:
 Clinical services
(e.g. such as the Inpatient Wards at the
Maudsley Hospital. Staff in these services
include Doctors, Nurses, Occupational
Therapists & Psychologists),
 Research
(e.g. studies into medications and therapies for
schizophrenia)
 Education of the service staff
(e.g. training in use of medication or family
therapy)
Anne Kirby, Psychosis CAG
3
Why did SLaM set up CAGs?
Having services, research and education in one
management group means that education and
research are planned together to help improve
services for the people who use them.
For example, an Occupational Therapist may
notice that people seem to find it easier to give
up smoking when receiving a particular sort of
therapy and suggest that researchers look into
this.
Anne Kirby, Psychosis CAG
4
Clinical + research + education
That’s interesting, the
last six people who
received this therapy
gave up smoking within 6
weeks. Could you
research that?
I’ve looked into it and
this therapy does seem
to help people who are
diagnosed with
schizophrenia to quit.
We’d better train the
staff!
That’s great I’ve given
up smoking at last
thanks to the therapy my
nurse recommended –
she really knew her stuff!
Benefits to Service users
Anne Kirby, Psychosis CAG
5
Care Pathways
Care pathways are maps of care for staff and service
users in SLaM, which show:
What should be offered to
service users e.g. medication,
occupational therapy,
psychology
When the care or
“intervention”
should be available
How something should be
offered, such as how information
is shared or how a particular
assessment is explained to
someone and who can/should
be present for the assessment.
Who should be offered the care
(depending on needs &
knowledge about what is useful
for different needs)
Who should provide the care
or intervention
Anne Kirby, Psychosis CAG
6
Aims of Involvement in Care
pathways
The role of the service user consultants in this
work will be to advise on how service users are
involved in:
a) Finding out about and shaping the work that
has already been done on the care pathways &
b) Filling in the details of the care pathways such
as the conversations staff have with service users
about assessment or therapy.
Anne Kirby, Psychosis CAG
7
How will it be structured?
The CAG has 4 Care Pathways:
Acute
Inpatient wards
Promoting Recovery
Community Psychosis Teams
Early Intervention
For people at their first episode of psychosis
Complex Care
Rehab inpatients, SLaM supported housing and placements
As all services are managed within these 4 pathways it makes
sense for the Psychosis CAG service user advisory group
to have two of it’s members involved in developing each
care pathway
Anne Kirby, Psychosis CAG
8
The Structure
Service User
Advisory Group
(8 members)
Early
Intervention
Acute
Complex Care
Promoting
Recovery
Consultation
Consultation
Consultation
Consultation
Anne Kirby, Psychosis CAG
9
Service User Consultant Role
 Attend and prepare for Service Users Advisory Group
 To attend the care pathway development meeting for
the specific care pathway you have chosen to work on.
 Support the Care Pathway Leads to make decisions
about consultation on care pathways development.
 Help the staff consider the relevance of this subject to
service users
 Think, not just about your own experience, but be an
ambassador for fellow service users and think of how
they should be involved in this activity
Anne Kirby, Psychosis CAG
10