The importance of relationship: Care planning and care coordination in mental health.

Research and evidence from service users has consistently reported that service users are not involved in care planning, despite mental health policy that advocates a collaborative process and evidence that involvement facilitates recovery (Bee et al, 2015; Simpson et al, 2016). Service users want the care plan to go beyond being a record of clinical decisions and include aspects of their lives in which they need support, such as housing, employment and benefits. Grundy et al (2016) looked at what 'user-involved' care planning might look like. They found that meaningful relationships were key to the successful involvement of service users in care planning. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.