Elliott, L.

BACKGROUND: United Kingdom legislation and clinical standards for schizophrenia challenge nurses to re-examine the support that they provide to carers. Nurses are in a key position to provide this support but may lack the necessary skills to do so. The training programme evaluated in the present study aimed to address this problem.

STUDY AIM: To evaluate change in clinical practice brought about by post-registration training for mental health nurses in supporting carers of people diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Background: Empirical research suggests that involving carers brings benefits to families and services. Consequently, drug-related policy and guidance has increasingly encouraged drug services to involve carers at all levels of service provision.

Objective: To explore the purpose and scope of carer involvement with adult drug services in North-east Scotland.