OSMOSIS

Co-producing social and community support resources for family carers of people with psychosis.

Start date

01 September 2025

End date

29 February 2028

Background

A carer is a friend or family member who provides unpaid support to someone so they can manage day-to-day. Being a carer for anyone can be difficult, but the unique stresses of caring for a family member or relative with psychosis (a severe mental illness) often impacts negatively on carers’ quality of life and wellbeing. They also often experience the stigma and discrimination associated with psychosis.

The caring role may include physical care, but typically involves emotional support and encouraging their loved-one to engage with services. For these reasons, psychosis carers must have access to appropriate support.

Under the Care Act, carers aged 18 or over have the legal right to information, advice, assessment of needs and access to support to address eligible needs. Local authorities often work with local service providers and the NHS to deliver carer support. The offer of support though is often not tailored to meet the unique needs of psychosis carers. This means that psychosis carers struggle to find support that is attuned to their unique caring experiences from local authorities, despite their rights under the Care Act.

Aims and study methods

We will work with three local authorities, their partner organisations, and psychosis carers to:

Map resources and local services currently available to psychosis carers. From this, we will identify examples of good practice and gaps.
Interview carers and staff who support them. We will ask carers about their experience of accessing and receiving support, and staff about delivering support. We will find out what helps or hinders.
Build on what we learn to work with carers and staff to design resources/actions that will improve support for psychosis carers.

Public and carer/service user involvement

We have, and will continue to, work with psychosis carers, people with psychosis and staff who support them throughout the project. We will form a Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG) with psychosis carers to oversee the project and advise us. We will provide training and payment to LEAG members. We will also work with people with psychosis, to ensure what we do in the study and the resources/actions we design also consider their views.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We will make a conscious effort to include and recruit carers from diverse ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds, especially those from disadvantaged groups. We have budgeted for translators, replacement care, digital data for phone/tablet and supported transport for carers to overcome obstacles to taking part.

Dissemination

We will produce resources and actions to support carers, including good practice examples. We will also have learnt what helps and hinders, from both carer and staff perspectives. We will circulate these resources/actions through local authorities and partner organisations, presentations, publications in journals, and social media.