About Nexus

What is Nexus?

Nexus involves those who use older people’s mental health services and their carers to have say in the way that those services are planned, run and developed.

Get involved

Involvement by service users and carers means services become more suited to the needs of those who use them and, by implication, make them more successful. It also shows their views are important and are acted upon. We are also interested in what past carers have to say.

Benefits to you personally include: making a difference for yourself and others in the future, gaining an understanding of services, building confidence in speaking out, giving something back, getting a sense of ‘camaraderie’ and making new friends with other service users and carers.

Nexus is here to help co-ordinate and support you to do this. Whatever you can do, big or small, can be used.

Ways to get involved

Receive information about what’s going on in mental health – join our mailing list to receive regular information about news, events and opportunities.
Share your views – this could be writing an article for the Involvement Newsletter or writing in with an issue about services. This can be done by hand, email, or through another means such as Digital Story Telling or our Facebook site.
Carers Involvement Group – attend an action group meeting once every two months which focuses on progressing issues raised by carers. Talk to carer representatives who can take forward your views to service providers for action.
Become a member of the Recruitment Panel – An opportunity to be trained and participate in selecting mental health staff of all levels.
Training – Learn new skills or refresh old ones. Our sessions aim to give you the tools, techniques and confidence to influence the development and delivery of services. With sessions to suit everyone - whether you’re interested in attending a meeting for the first time or you’re already a seasoned service user representative.
Armed Forces Veterans Group – Focusing on the mental health needs of this group locally.
Specific Topic Groups – new services are always being planned and developed others change over time and need refinement. Please get in touch if you would like more information on current work topics or have a particular interest in a certain area of services.

What services users and carers have said about Nexus

“Nexus provides us with opportunities to engage with/speak to/confront statutory organisations – their management, their planners, their operational team leaders, and their front line workers – and offer support, criticism, ideas without fear of the consequences.”

“They have convinced carers that they have a voice and encourage them to use it and provide the support carers need to enable them to do this”.

“Nexus’ independence allows freedom of thought and speech – it empowers individuals to verbalise their thoughts. It allows things to be said that might otherwise not be. It enables carers to speak out on behalf of the ones they care for – the ones that they love.”

T: 029 2022 2000
E: nexus@cavamh.org.uk

Nexus Involvement on Facebook