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MH_40: Enable individuals and families to put informed choices for optimising their mental health and social well-being into action

Full Unit CodeFrameworkStatus
Mental_Health_MH_40 Mental Health National Occupational Standards (NOS)

Summary

This workforce competence is about enabling individuals and families to put their informed choices for optimising the mental health and social well-being into action, and reviewing the effectiveness of their actions.

This workforce competence applies to those who work closely with individuals and/or families to address issues that affect their mental health. This is likely to be a process that takes place over some time and requires the worker to develop effective working relationships with the individuals and families with whom they work.

KSF Dimension & Level Health and wellbeing HWB4: Enablement to address health and wellbeing needs
Level 2: Enable people to meet ongoing health and wellbeing needs
Origin This workforce competence has been developed by Skills for Health.
Relationships This workforce competence relates to workforce competence HSC3103 which deals with the planning, implementation and evaluation of awareness raising about mental health issues. You may be working with individuals and families as a consequence of such awareness raising. Working in partnership with other agencies is recognised more explicitly within workforce competences HSC3100 and MH80.
This unit appears in the following sets of units:
  1. Skills for Health: Mental Health framework
Activity scope
Changes
include:
  1. whether and how goals and aims need to be revised
  2. whether the action plan is complete
  3. the individual wishes to stop the course of action
  4. how the individual can support the effectiveness of the programme when not in direct contact with yourself
  5. the interaction between your interventions and those of other care workers.
Methods
include:
  1. coaching and training
  2. counselling and support
  3. challenging someone's behaviour
  4. demonstration
  5. information provision
  6. making contracts.
Options
include:
  1. what it is possible for the individuals and families to directly influence
  2. what it may be possible to achieve if the individuals and families join with others
  3. factors which may be outside of individuals' direct control but which impinge on their choices.
Outcomes
include:
  1. progress
  2. maintenance of status quo
  3. deterioration and regression.
Support mechanisms
include:
  1. formal
  2. informal.
Key words and concepts
Any others who will be involved in the implementation of courses of action
might include: yourself; colleagues in your own agency; people in other agencies; friends and colleagues of the individual.
‘Complete' records
in performance criterion 15 means that the records should be signed, dated and contain all the relevant information.
Feasibility
in performance criterion 20 will need to take into account the socio-economic context of people (such as their disposable income, relative income, housing); their personal context (such as their personal beliefs and preferences, support systems, gender, sexuality, age, abilities) and any environmental constraints.
Informed choices
Putting their into action will include sustaining approaches as well as the initial use of them.
Other factors
in performance criterion 7 will include: your agency's policy; your own role; and the agency's resourcing and priorities.
Opinions
The sort of ‘opinions' which people might be encouraged to offer in performance criterion 14 are: their views of the methods used and their effectiveness; the extent to which the methods have achieved their aims and goals, the individual's broader needs in relation to their health and social well-being; any other factors which may have affected the outcomes achieved or the effectiveness of the methods used.
Options
may include accessing services offered by a range of agencies.
Processes
in performance criterion 18 would include consideration of time, possible interventions and different forms of support.
Performance criteria You need to:
1.encourage individuals to be clear about the choices which they have made and the reasons for their chosen course of action
2.explore the implications of the choice with the individual in a manner which encourages them to understand the impact of it on their daily life and any difficulties which might arise
3.clarify the range of support mechanisms which will be available to the individual and provide them with any necessary information
4.explore the methods available to enable the individual to put their informed choices into action with them
5.support the individual to choose methods that are appropriate to the agreed course of action and agree these with the individual and any others who will be involved in their implementation
6.use selected methods in a manner appropriate to the individuals concerned and in a way which encourages them to put their informed choices into action
7.maintain contact to a level which offers the amount of support necessary for the individuals concerned and is realistic given other factors
8.encourage individuals to seek further support when they are in need of it
9.acknowledge and respect individuals' right to change their minds and consider alternative approaches
10.actively encourage individuals and families to take a full and active part in the review process
11.review the outcomes from putting their informed choices into action and the effectiveness of these with the individual in an appropriate manner, level and pace
12.reach agreement with those involved as to any changes which need to be made in how they address issues and the support they receive
13.encourage and support individuals to consider the implications of any changes in the actions they are going to take and who is involved
14.actively encourage those involved to offer their opinions and suggest ways in which they might improve the process
15.maintain accurate, legible and complete records of:
  1. the choices made and the actions agreed.
  2. the review process.
16.encourage and support individuals to:
  1. reflect on their own concerns for their mental health
  2. realise the potential for change
  3. dentify and explore their own personal beliefs and preferences in relation to their mental health, what they value most in their lives and how these may inter-relate
  4. identify their own priorities in relation to their mental health
17.discuss individual's priorities for their mental health and confirm that you have interpreted them correctly by reflecting back to them
18.ensure that when you are working with a family, you adopt processes which allow the different members to identify their own concerns, beliefs and priorities and make their own decisions
19.explore and discuss the various options which are available for meeting the agreed priorities, together with the implications of each
20.check that the options discussed are feasible for the people concerned
21.ensure that when an individual makes choices which involve risks, you explain this in a manner which is supportive of the individual concerned and is not critical of them
22.encourage individuals to select options which are capable of being implemented and to which they are committed.
Knowledge & Understanding You need to apply:
Legislation, Policy and Good Practice
K1A working knowledge of holistic concepts and approaches to health and social well-being
K2A working knowledge of why it is important for the individual, not the worker, to control the progress and content of discussions and how to make suggestions and offer advice in a manner that is supportive and non-directive
K3A working knowledge of why it is important to create an honest and trusting relationship with the individuals concerned and how this can be achieved
K4A working knowledge of why it is important to revisit the decisions made and the steps taken and to confirm the individual's aims and goals
K5A working knowledge of why it is important to include families and others affected in the review process
K6A working knowledge of the key points in a review process (aims, methods, outcomes) and why these are all important
Services and Products
K12A working knowledge of the range of support groups and services available locally and sources of further information about them and what they do
K13A working knowledge of where to access further information about the range of support mechanisms that are available
K14A working knowledge of agency procedures for accessing support and resources provided by other agencies/ organisations (such as counselling services, social care services)
Factors which Influence What You Do
K15A working knowledge of the inter-relationship between socio-economic factors and mental health
K16A working knowledge of the inter-relationship between personal factors (e.g. genetics) and mental health
K17A working knowledge of the difficulties of identifying cause-and-effect relationships in issues to do with mental health
K18A working knowledge of the kinds of misinformation which people receive about mental health and how this can be counteracted
K19A working knowledge of your own beliefs about social and personal factors and mental health and how this may affect your work
K20A working knowledge of the judgements which may come into play when making information available to people and how this may display discrimination
K21A working knowledge of the possible implications of individuals' honesty in discussing issues for any others who may be present and how to help others address and express their feelings
K22A working knowledge of how culture, beliefs and preferences can affect an individual's willingness to discuss issues and the strategies which may be used to encourage them to do so
K23A working knowledge of how individuals' and families' needs and interests may be affected by their current level of knowledge and understanding, their personal beliefs and values, their previous experiences and how they use services and the situation in which they find themselves
this statement is represented externally as an example
K24A working knowledge of how working with a group differs from working with an individual and the key factors in successful group work
K25A working knowledge of the importance of peer support in achieving change
K26A working knowledge of learning styles and strategies
K27A working knowledge of the individual's circumstances, the options they have considered, the decisions that they have made and the steps that they have taken to address issues affecting their mental health
K28A working knowledge of the cyclical nature of the implementation process, its stages and milestones
How to Achieve Important Outcomes
K29A working knowledge of strategies for encouraging individuals to discuss issues openly and honestly
K30A working knowledge of how to respect and acknowledge others' priorities in relation to their mental health and their right to refuse advice and information
K31A working knowledge of how to demonstrate support through verbal and non-verbal means
K32A working knowledge of how to confirm the individual's understanding of information which they receive and how lack of comprehension may affect the choices which they make
K33A working knowledge of strategies for encouraging individuals to recognise their ability to make changes
K34A working knowledge of methods of evaluating the feasibility of the individual's identified options and of supporting the individual to do this themselves
K35A working knowledge of strategies for encouraging family members and friends to be involved in supporting the individual
K36A working knowledge of strategies for helping people maintain their commitment to change (e.g. contracts and written commitment)
K37A working knowledge of methods and strategies for coaching and training the individual and for them to use themselves
K38A working knowledge of how to ask open questions and encourage individuals to think through options
K39A working knowledge of how to encourage individuals to learn and develop
K40A working knowledge of methods of encouraging the participation of individuals, their families and others affected by the individual's choices and actions or involved in helping the individual put their choices into action
K41A working knowledge of how to arrange the immediate environment to make it conducive to the review process (such as minimising disturbances)
K42A working knowledge of how to help individuals consider and identify factors contributing to the success and failure of their actions and why it is important to guard against making simplistic judgements of cause and effect
K43A working knowledge of methods of recording individual's views and comments and the uses to which the individual can put those records.