Ms Colette Kelleher:

Many of the people who deliver programmes with families are people who have gone through the programmes themselves. They are very strong advocates and go on to train. When people chat to each other, people realise that these advocates were a family member and came to the work through that route. This is a very important group that we focus on and indeed what the Rise Foundation focuses upon. It has always been centre stage and has always been a cornerstone in what we have done. There is definitely more scope for this, particularly at the early stages.

The national strategy acknowledges in one of its objectives the importance of family involvement in services so there is scope there for a national response.