As 'experts by experience', service users, patients and carers have an important role to play in how we: 

• Develop new services and deliver existing services
  

• Identify how services will be run
  

• Recruit, train and develop our staff
  

• Monitor quality of services
  

• Identify and help implement service improvement
  

We have an Involvement Scheme to help as many people as possible become involved with our Trust. If you would like to volunteer with us, you will need to join our Involvement Scheme.

Opportunities for volunteers are varied and are offered within all our boroughs as well as across the Trust. Some examples of activities volunteers have been involved in include:

Halton

A number of service users and carers take part in the Trust's collaborative quality visits. They visit teams and wards across the Trust and look at all aspects of service delivery and patient experience. Information gathered is then used by staff and managers to make improvements. 

Find out what volunteering opportunities we currently have in Halton.

Knowsley

As part of the Trust's smokefree strategy, a service user visits inpatient wards. They support inpatients to access information about nicotine replacement therapies and strategies to refrain from smoking. They also gather feedback about the effectiveness of the support provided to inpatients and report this directly to Trust smokefree leads.

Find out what volunteering opportunities we currently have in Knowsley.

Sefton

We are looking to increase the number of volunteers in Sefton, particularly to help us increase our foundation trust membership within the borough.

Find out what volunteering opportunities we currently have in Sefton.   

St Helens

A group of service users, supported by staff, have started a gardening group. They have turned an overgrown, semi-derelict piece of land at the side of Harry Blackman House into a lovely place to relax and enjoy nature.

Find out what volunteering opportunities we currently have in St Helens.

Warrington

It can be difficult to get feedback from people with dementia regarding their experience of using our services and how well we are meeting their needs. A volunteer from Warrington visits dementia cafes run by the Alzheimer's Society and spends time chatting to the service users and carers. Their comments about what has happened to them while they have been in our service are fed back to managers and used to identify changes and share good practice.

Find out what volunteering opportunities we currently have in Warrington.

Wigan

Health and social care services in Wigan are being restructured as part of work being led by Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership. This involves looking at service provision across the borough, regardless of provider, and identifying ways to bring them closer to local communities and easier to access. A group of service users and carers from the Trust is integral to the process, taking part in regular meetings to discuss all aspects of the project and reporting back to other service users and carers in Wigan.

Find out what volunteering opportunities we currently have in Wigan.

Across all our boroughs

We have volunteering opportunities across all our boroughs. Volunteers must have their own transport, or ability to travel, as they will be visiting a range of groups and locations.

Find out what volunteering opportunities we currently have across all our boroughs.

Young people

We also have SHOUT which is our young people's participation group. It's open to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) users, former service users, potential service users and other young people who would just like help make a difference to mental health services in their area.

Further information

• How we use your information staff and volunteering privacy notice
  

Watch our short volunteering video below.