Know what you want to achieve and take a tailored approach
- Which elements of the Health and Justice Charter for Families and Carers do you particularly want to address for your service or site? What is the change you want to see happen?
For example, the team at HMP Elmley wanted to provide clear information to families about health promotion activity – to help encourage patients to engage.
- You know your site, service and team best: how can you maximise your strengths? How can you align your family involvement work with the prison’s Family Strategy?
For example, at HMP Aylesbury, use of virtual communication channels such as Microsoft Teams was already a strength. The team built on this by formalising health and security protocols to use those tools to increase family involvement in multi-disciplinary meetings and health appointments.
- How can you gather data and feedback to help you narrow down the best area of focus?
For example, in HMP Huntercombe, the healthcare team circulated a brief survey to gather awareness and perceptions of family involvement among patients and staff. In HMP Thameside, the team used in-cell digital terminals to ask about patient views and preferences on family involvement.
- Be clear about how much time and resource you might need to have an impact.
Make sure you have clear processes to ensure safety and protect confidentiality
Do you have clear arrangements for consent and contact details to be 1) recorded and 2) accessed when needed?
Add link to consent section
Consider what targeted approaches to offer family involvement to patients who would benefit most
- Evidence suggests that harnessing family support for health and wellbeing might have greatest benefits for people who are neurodivergent, have mental health needs, have a long-term condition or serious illness, are pregnant or have recently given birth are self-isolating or vulnerable, or are receiving end-of-life care. How can you make sure that family involvement is routinely considered for patients in these cohorts?
Embedding proactive family involvement as routine
- Early Days in Custody is an important opportunity to establish family involvement: a high-risk time for health and safety, and a time where every single patient has multiple contacts with healthcare.
- How can you identity people who might particularly benefit from family support with health at the EDIC stage, and arrange a follow-up to discuss, record consent and record family contact details? Follow-up could be undertaken by a combination of: existing routine appointments, additional visits to cells by healthcare or linkwork/navigator staff, targeted support from peer workers, or even via digital communication systems where available.
A whole team approach
- How will you make sure everyone across your healthcare team understands the benefits and implications of family involvement, and their role in it?
- How will you work with colleagues across the prison to make sure that joint processes are in place where necessary?
For example, at HMP Aylesbury, the healthcare team agreed new processes with Safer Custody and the Offender Management Unit. At HMP Huntercombe, the healthcare team presented, alongside family members, at an all-staff meeting.