This next section will focus on strategies to help you build a collaborative and effective working relationship with family carers. These strategies have been designed to be used in almost all consultations and discussions where a family carer is present.
Whilst many of these strategies may seem straightforward to experienced clinicians, they are critical, core components of successful communication with family and can be easy to forget in the course of busy clinical practise.
Analyses of audio-recorded consultations reveal that attempts to connect with family caregivers (e.g. learning about the carer, inviting their questions, providing specific information to carer) rarely occur in clinical practice. These results applied to both junior and senior clinicians 18.
The TRIO expert advisory committee feel that before moving onto more challenging and complex situations, it is important you revise these everyday strategies.