Summary of discussions – SLaM service user and carer advisory group for emergency access and complex care services

Hello all,

The departments that manage the services at South London & Maudsely NHS Foundation Trust have ‘advisory groups’ where service users and carers come together to advise on and discuss developments.   The Psychological Medicine department advisory group produces a brief summary of their discussions.  The purpose  is to let interested people know what is being discussed.  Please circulate as appropriate.  

PDF here: briefing – Nov 2013 – doc

With best wishes,

Alice

Alice Glover

Patient & Public Involvement Lead – Mood Anxiety & Personality CAG and Psychological Medicine CAG
email:  alice.glover@slam.nhs.uk tel: 020 3228 0959
113 Denmark Hill |The Maudsley Hospital | Denmark Hill | London | SE5 8AZ

The Psychological Medicine Clinical Academic Group (CAG) runs services across the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM). The services include emergency access services (such as home treatment services, A&E psychiatric liaison), complex care services (such as eating disorders, chronic fatigue, mother & baby services) and neurosciences services (such as brain injury). Advisory group members have experience of services either as service users or family members/carers.  We work with the senior managers to keep the views of service users & carers at the heart of all service developments and improvements.  To make sure that people know what we are discussing in our meetings, we have developed this short briefing sheet:

1. Six people with experience of using services or being a family member/carer were present at the November meeting.  Also present were the managers of the 3 Triage Wards, the Patient & Public Involvement Lead and the Croydon Clinical Service lead.  Apologies were received from 3 service user/ carer consultants and 1 staff member.
2. As agreed at the last meeting, the focus of this meeting was patient experience on Triage wards. We focussed on the improvement work happening on triage wards following the recent visits by group members. Initial visits were held in the Spring and follow up visits in October. Discussions focussed on the following areas:

Care planning

Members of our group will continue to advise the wards on developing a user friendly template for a care plan for people on a triage wards.  We will make sure that black/black british people are involved in developing this because they are currently significantly less likely to say they are satisfied with care planning.  One ward manager has designed a poster about care planning and she will share this with the other managers.

Food/Refreshments

The quality and quantity of food available has been raised as an issue.  There is a time-limited trustwide working group working with the food providers to make improvements.  Ward managers will ensure that complaints continue to be logged and forwarded.  They will also ensure that there is easy access to water 24 hours a day.

Community meetings

Group members advised that community meetings should be run by service users, but that staff should be present.  Patients should be able to read the notes from the meetings which should be presented in a clear, but accessible style.    Advisory group members will assist ward staff to develop the community meetings when the work on care planning has been completed.

Information

The group acknowledged that a lot of discussions focussed on patient information.  It was agreed that a time limited working group should be set up to develop a consistent approach to: developing ward induction packs, care planning folders, notice boards and ensuring adequate availability of appropriate leaflets

Satisfaction Questionnaires

The ward managers agreed to display ‘Thank You and Feedback’ posters, showing how the service will use patient feedback for improvements.

This work will continue to be monitored through the Triage pathway meetings, the governance management meeting and the service user & carer advisory group.

The advisory group thanked the ward managers for attending and offered continued support to their work to improve patient experience.

Views and comments from SLaM service users and carers on any of the above issues, as well as feedback on how you would like the Psychological Medicine Service User & Carer Advisory Group to develop its strategic work with SLaM, are welcome.  Please contact Alice Glover, Patient & Public Involvement Lead on 0203 228 0959  or email alice.glover@slam.nhs.uk