The care programme approach: whose is it? empowering users in the care programme process

Abstract

The Care Programme Approach is a co-ordinated assessment, care planning and monitoring process for users of mental health services, required by the Department of Health in the United Kingdom. This project was designed to enable service users to be pro-active in their own care planning process, by producing a user-designed checklist to provide their own agenda for review meetings rather than following that of professional. The evaluation shows that the checklist was welcomed in principle by professionals and service users, although for different reasons, but the implementation highlighted the difficulty in communicating with both groups. The outcome demonstrates an opportunity for service users to challenge the perceptions of mental health professionals. © 1998, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.