Welcome to episode 156 [originally broadcast on Wednesday 13 March 2024] of #mhTV​​​​​​​​. This week Nicky Lambert and Vanessa Gilmartin spoke with guests Georgina Adams and Debbie Frances about Stronger Together: An evaluation of a quality improvement initiative to reduce suicide risk and improve patient safety through carer collaboration.

GA I am Georgina Adams and I have worked for the last year as a Clinical Lead in the Safe from Suicide team (Suicide prevention) with Devon Partnership Trust . The focus of my work is building and improving family and carer involvement as this is so important for patient safety, carer well being and suicide prevention. In this role I have been lucky enough to have joined the co production team creating Stronger Together training, which is I first met and started working with Debbie. We now co deliver Stronger Together to carers and practitioners. I qualified as a social worker in 1993 and worked in frontline child protection work until I joined DPT in 2020 as the lead social worker at a forensic psychiatric hospital before I joined the Safe from Suicide team. Working with families and carers has always been important to me and is at the heart of my values and ethics.

DF I am a former parent carer for a young adult with complex mental health issues. As a consequence of my experiences of mental health services over many years, I am passionate about working to improve the quality and safety of services available to those in need of support, and changing the way in which services engage with carers and families. I have a particular interest in suicide prevention, and provide lived experience input into my local NHS mental health trust’s suicide prevention work. This has included the codesign and delivery of the ‘Stronger Together’ training programme, which aims to inform, support and empower carers of those affected by suicidal behaviours. I am CoChair of the Trust’s Carer Strategy Implementation Group, and was involved in coproducing their new carer strategy.
I have broadranging experience within the mental health and voluntary sectors, most recently as a freelance Mental Health Trainer and Lived Experience Carer Consultant, specialising in carer support, and coproduction and collaborative working within mental health services. I am a guest tutor at Exeter and Reading Universities.
In 2018, I was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to research initiatives that prevent the escalation and recurrence of mental illness in young people, leading to me travel to Australia and Finland in 2019 and 2020 respectively. In July 2023, I completed a Masters in Mental Health Recovery & Social Inclusion at the University of Hertfordshire, with Distinction.

Some X links to follow are:
VG www.x.com/VanessaRNMH
NL www.x.com/niadla​​​​​​​​
DM www.x.com/davidamunday
GA www.x.com/georgewaw1967
DF www.x.com/deb_frances

Credits:
#mhTV Presenters: Vanessa Gilmartin, Nicky Lambert & David Munday
Guests: Georgina Adams and Debbie Frances
Theme music: Tony Gillam
Production & Editing: David Munday