The involvement of patient and carers is a key element of our vision and strategy. Meaningful involvement and engagement ensures that their experiences and views are clearly heard and influence care provided as part of the Greater Manchester stroke and neurorehabilitation pathways.
Until recently we had two Patient and Carer Groups, one for stroke and one for neurorehabilitation. These have now been combined. Two fantastic Chairs lead the group, working with the network team and engaging more widely on our behalf.
Mike Carpenter (pictured right) joined as neurorehabilitation Chair in June 2022. He has been living with multiple sclerosis for over 10 years and is passionate about improving the care for patients with neurological conditions.
Nick Davies (pictured left) suffered a stroke several years ago and continues his journey of recovery. He is keen to support development of services that meet the needs of stroke survivors and their families.
The group has 15 members from across the region, all with different backgrounds and experiences. We are working to increase the size of this group further, and develop a wider variety of ways for people to be involved in the network’s decision making. To find out more about patient and carer involvement, email our involvement coordinator at Abi.Bisset@nca.nhs.uk.
The network also continues to work very closely with the voluntary sector organisations who are represented at many of our key groups including: BASIC; Headway; Huntington’s Disease Association; MND Association; MS Society; Neurological Alliance; Parkinson’s UK; Speakeasy; Stroke Association and Think Ahead.