‘In Wales, are contemporary models of front line social care for people with recurrent mental ill health fit for purpose?: a mixed methods study’.

Summary

Welsh Government policy recognises that providing social support in the community is complex. They are putting forward plans to create services that join up better, in order to meet the needs of the people who use them. Services will be expected to help people to be independent and to achieve outcomes that improve their well-being. A separate set of Welsh Government objectives, called Fair Work, aim to improve the working conditions of front line social care staff. These will enable staff to work in an effective and supportive way, in order to help people to achieve goals that they set for themselves. This PhD study concerns people who experience repeated episodes of mental ill-health. Little is known about how well different ways of providing support work for people. In particular, we know little about their effectiveness in achieving goals that matter to service users themselves. We do not know how well their needs are met, nor what aspects of support are most valued. We do not know what are the best arrangements to support social care staff in their work. The study will address these questions using interviews and surveys with staff and service-users. People with lived experience of mental illness are research team members. They have been involved in planning the project from the start. As members of the supervisory team, they will be fully involved in presenting and promoting our results. The PhD student will study several services in different settings in North Wales. They will be based at the Centre for Mental Health and Society, Bangor University, located in Wrexham. The main supervisor is Professor Huxley, a social worker with decades of Version 1 December 2022 6. Keywords Keywords: Social care; mental health; well-being experience of practice and research in Mental Health. He will lead a supervisory team that will meet regularly with the student.