How working together can help in other ways

Working together with your supporters and mental health workers can also help you:

• to have more support at home with your care plan
• when you are in hospital and after you go home
• when you move to a new mental health service.

Working together can also help health and disability workers learn more about intellectual disability and how to support you.

More support at home with your care plan

Ask if someone you trust could come to an appointment with your mental health worker to learn more about your care plan.

Mental health workers can work with the person you trust so they:

• know about your care plan
• can support you to use the skills you learn
• can help you take your medication
• can help you with any questions you may have about your treatment.

Making sure you have support in hospital and after you go home

If you have to go to hospital for your mental health, your carer, family or support worker can visit you in hospital if you like. They can be involved in discussions about your mental health care.

If you feel you need more support or have concerns you can speak to your doctor or nurses. There may also be a person called a Patient Liaison Officer in the hospital. A Patient Liaison Officer can answer your questions and help you with any concerns you have about your stay.

Before you leave hospital, if you want you can:

• ask your mental health workers at the hospital to speak to people who will support you when you go home
• ask your mental health workers to keep in contact with you when you go home to see how you are going and if you need more support

You can find out more information about leaving hospital in the Discharge section. You can also use the My Easy Read Discharge Plan.

Support when moving to a new mental health service or mental health worker

If you are starting with a new mental health service, you can ask your current mental health worker to:

• talk with your new mental health worker
• meet with you and your new mental health worker
• keep in contact with you and your new mental health worker when you first start seeing them to see how you are going
• share information about your mental health with your new mental health worker (if you say this is OK).

There is more information available here about moving to a new mental health service in Moving to new services.

If your mental health and disability workers want more information about how to help you best

You can tell your mental health workers more about intellectual disability and how they can help you best.

You can suggest your mental health and disability workers talk to each other about how to provide the best care for you.

Some mental health workers can ask specialist intellectual disability mental health workers about how to help you best. Specialists know a lot about intellectual disability. You can let your mental health workers know they can find out more on the Specialist intellectual disability services page.