Kent’s mental health trust has become the first in the country to introduce a new treatment model aimed at involving families more in patients’ care.

Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust’s (KMPT) Peer Supported Open Dialogue Team (POD) hopes to increase continuity throughout the process and cut hospital admissions.

It involves a group of professionals, family members and past service users meeting with the patient to discuss their care.

Discussions about the patient will only take place at these meetings meaning everyone involved will always be up to date.

The model originated in Finland in the 1980s and has led to better recovery, reduced medication and a smoother return to employment.

Yasmin Ishaq, who is running the project, said: “POD aims to work with the assets and strengths of individuals and their support networks to bring about change.

"Experiences are normalised in the context of stressful life events and thus become understood in a different way.”

Many issues the new scheme seeks to address have been identified as causes for concern by coroners and families.

Last January KMPT was advised by coroner Patricia Harding to inform families of ‘red flags’ to look out for after 32-year-old architect Joanna Bowring took her own life.

She stepped in front of a Eurostar train at Boxley in June 2015.

That year the mother of a schizophrenic man who killed himself at Hildenborough train station hit out at the NHS for failings in the year leading up to his death.

Jayne Jensen criticised Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust for not involving her and the rest of her son Joe’s family in his care.

An internal review carried out by the trust concluded families should be involved more after discharge to develop a fuller picture of individuals.

The trial of POD is expected to run for four years.