NELFT is the first NHS trust to establish a Relational Care Faculty (RCF) to transform mental healthcare for patients and their families. 

Relational care nurtures non-hierarchical trusting relationships between those needing mental health support, their family, the community they live in and their care team. The innovative approach can help achieve positive outcomes in treatment while also promoting freedom, autonomy and choice.  

The Relational Care Faculty will not only foster the development and implementation of relational mental healthcare at NELFT, but it will also role model and champion the relational ways of working both nationally and internationally. 

Open Dialogue, a model of care developed in Finland that has had global uptake including in Denmark, Sweden and the US, will be a key part of this work, alongside other forms of relational care training. The purpose of these types of training is to put the patient at the centre of their own care, through teaching staff to provide human rights-based, least restrictive, systemic care involving the patients’ chosen support network in providing expertise and continuity. 

NELFT was the trust to first to provide accredited training over a decade ago. NHS trusts have now trained over 700 clinicians from the UK and abroad since 2013.

Professor Russell Razzaque, Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director at NELFT, is one of Leads for the Faculty. He said: 

“We are very proud to be launching a relational care faculty to advocate for ways of working that have been proven to show positive outcomes for both patients and staff. We hope that our work will raise awareness of the benefits of Open Dialogue and related trainings not only in the UK but also internationally.”  

The Faculty will engage staff and users of service in a collaborative process to co-produce the nature of the implementation of relational care, through workshops and ongoing support. Other psychological therapies including cognitive behavioural therapy but also prescribed medication, if necessary, can all work alongside.

Kate Lorrimer, Expert Advisor in Relational Care at NELFT and Faculty Lead, said: 

“Learning to build therapeutic relationships, promotes understanding and empathy and can facilitate the sharing of stories and experience. This is instrumental in empowering staff to do difficult work, both with the patient and in their teams through teaching reflective practice and supervision skills. It also cultivates a sense of safety, where all voices are heard and new understandings emerge transforming the experience and outcomes of treatment.”

Lived experience leadership and coproduction will be fundamental to the Faculty and all service design and improvement.  

Rachel Bannister, Expert by Experience, who has received relational care support, said: 

“As a caregiver to a daughter who has encountered difficulties in accessing safe and effective healthcare for over a decade, I have witnessed the profound adverse effects that stem from a lack of continuity of care and an absence of an integrated holistic treatment approach. The necessity for her to repeatedly articulate her experiences to various healthcare professionals over the years has proven to be a distressing and, at times, traumatic process. 

“Since we began to engage in Open Dialogue as a family, I have experienced firsthand the beneficial impact of a relational approach. For the first time, we have been able to establish the trusting relationships necessary for us to speak with openness and honesty but without fear of judgement.

“The establishment of this ‘safe holding space’ has empowered us to articulate and express difficult emotions and enabled my daughter to share traumatic experiences for the first time. The openness and transparency inherent in the Open Dialogue process, particularly the practice of health professionals reflecting on what they have heard in our presence, has allowed my daughter to feel genuinely heard for the first time.”

Find out more here Relational Care Faculty