Service Users Conference

Tuesday 25 November

The Trust held its first Service Users Conference on Tuesday 25 November 2014at which delegates were invited to discuss and feedback on service improvements.

Discussion

“What matters most to you?” Below is an outline of the key themes raised:

  • Service Users would like more time with psychiatrists; half an hour every two months is not enough.
  • Independent living: When moving onto this relationships and employment are important factors.
  • Consistency of care co-ordination: This is particularly important when the care co-ordinator is on holiday.
  • Support in Primary Care: Need better access. Access to talking therapies.
  • Out of hours care: Want a 24/7 service and not a 9 to 5.
  • Telecoms: Need more that two lines in when need to contact Crisis Teams. Would like to have text and email as well.
  • Transport: Lack of access. If someone is taking a taxi out of area why can’t that money stay in Kent and go towards more beds.
  • Beds: Eating disorder service users at Red House would like an OT and a dietician.
  • Young Carers: Single Point of Access (SPA) is available to everyone including young carers.
  • Health Watch are involved in the impact on transport.
  • Staff attitude: Depending on this is how easy or hard it is for Service Users to feedback.
  • Do not provide a Job Taster Scheme in Medway.
  • Relationships are key.
  • Access to services: Need to communicate this better.
  • Investing properly in acute services. Reducing agency staff in acute wards. Make sure that all staff are appropriately trained.
  • Service Users need to be individuals with their own Crisis Plans and Cards. Everyone is different with specific needs carrying their details on their Crisis Cards.
  • SPA: If don’t like using the phone need to be able to text or email. Want to avoid repetition i.e. being passed onto someone else to then go over the same details. Will demand outstrip capacity? Would like an update on this.
  • Discharge arrangements: Make sure these meet the needs of those going into the community. Would like discharge plans.
  • Build better 3rd party relationships – MHAG.
  • Day care: There is a gap in the service. People coming our of hospital or those who are experiencing a crisis and do not require hospital treatment need half way care/half way house. This needs to be a ring-fenced, timed programme to meet needs.
  • Care Plans: These need to be written with the Service User, signed off and ser out as a narrative at home. Recovery Pack should be a physical document. ‘Where to care’ – 3rd party care; who to go to and when.
  • Improve collaborative nature of Care Planning. Engage with GPs and 3rd party sector.
  • Continuity of staff: Should be more locally focussed.
  • Care co-ordinators: Need to increase admin support for these.
  • Crisis Café and houses are important.
  • Potential of peer support workers: Would like to see these increased.
  • ‘Closing the gaps’: Having enough beds and being able to spend more time in hospital.
  • More half way houses needed.
  • More liaison with GPs needed.
  • Support for people: Ensure this is in place as a prevention. Involve family members and support them and their needs.

Question and Answer Session

“How should we work together moving forward?”

How do you as a team intend to get more funding into Mental Health in Kent and Medway?

We work with commissioners.

Look are evidence outside of Kent and Medway. What things could we do more of.

We go in with data driven evidence based proposals; saying what Service Users want and give a compelling story.

How long will it take for funding to filter down? Funding needs to be sorted now!

Looking at this from a national standpoint; there is no parity between mental health and physical health investment. This is something that needs to be addressed. At a local level we need to have a clear focus on priorities. We feel that we have come out of discussions with commissioners positively.

Trust needs more staff, to stop using agency nurses and need more beds. Care co-ordinators are torn between care for patients and paperwork. How is the Trust addressing these issues?

Staffing is part of a wider Department of Health initiative. The Trust has spent over £1m increasing nurses in the Trust. We have set minimum staffing levels. These are monitored at Board level and on a shift by shift basis. We have also put a number of schemes in place to attract more nurses in Kent and Medway. We are slowly beginning to encourage propels to come into the area. We are also keeping a close eye on retaining staff.

Staff need to take good clinical notes that needs to be accessible to other healthcare professionals. We need to make RiO as easy as possible to use. We recognise that efficiency of IT services varies across the Trust. The Trust’s Clinical Cabinet is looking at the support given to clinicians so that they do the job they are employed to do.

Service Users need better community support.

We are looking at community support to make sure that we are doing more at first response to referral. We are also looking at caseloads for care co-ordinators. We need people to do jobs as efficiently as possible.

Care needs to be improved now. How many peer support workers are you going to employ?

We intend to keep those we have and increase the number of peer support workers we have. We will be talking to commissioners about this when we look at contracting.

Clinical documentation: Access to systems may take 40 minutes sometimes; what is planned to address this?

We have a clear action plan to improve the Trust’s IT infrastructure. We have made a considerable investment into this and planning is in place to implement changes and improve services by mid-January 2015.

Could the Senior Management Team (SMT) set aside one day per month to engage with services and staff?

Angela McNab, Chief Executive, does this one day per month already.

How can the Trust make staff feel more empowered to effect change?

Culture does take a long time to change. The SMT do give out the message that staff should come forward if they have ideas. People need to look at what is going well and what is not. The Trust’s Staff Forum promote locally that people can go out and fix things. Staff are being told do what you think you need to do to change things.

Poor housing does not help people with mental health issues. Swale need a group to support people through recovery including the homeless.

The Trust recognise people need good support in housing and will pick up on this issue. Access to the telephone and internet is also important to Service Users.

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Held at: John Wigan Room, Oakwood House, OakwoodPark, Maidstone, KentME16 8AE