Compared to physical health and wellness services, those of mental health suffer an institutional disadvantage. Even as we become more and more interested in mental well-being, this hasn’t been reflected in the attention given by the media and, when mental health does grace the headlines, it is often for the wrong reasons. Therefore, with all this in mind, there is still work to be done to engage with the public and improve patient care in mental health.
Patient engagement has been high on the agenda since the Mid Staffs scandal, as the negligence may have been spotted earlier had the health professionals involved listened to patients’ concerns. However, while this certainly is the case, Dr Ray Johannsen-Chapman, the strategic lead for patient and public involvement at South London and Maudsley NHS foundation trust (Slam), asserts that the patient voice can be much more than a safety barometer. According to Johannsen-Chapman, “At South London and Maudsley foundation trust (Slam), we provide the widest range of NHS mental health and substance misuse services in the UK, and believe that everyone who uses our services has a valuable contribution to make to service development and training.”
Slam has recently asked Fr3dom Health to design a single system to serve all teams and patients, which will collect and manage patient experience data. This data will then be fed into teams to help improve their services, as well as providing a quality measure for the trust and commissioners (both local CCGs and specialist commissioners) and informing the design of care pathways. Johannsen-Chapman commented, “The patient experience data information centre (Pedic) distilled our existing surveys into core and non-core content, producing a standard structure that teams could build upon to meet their specific needs.”
Now, instead of filling out out-dated, pre-printed surveys, the teams deliver their surveys as print-on-demand physical questionnaires and via digital platforms. This ensures that the teams are using the service, as the patient and public involvement (PPI) team can now monitor patient experience across the entire trust. Moreover, the new scheme has already highlighted three areas in which the trust can improve its services; emotional support, privacy and dignity. As Johannsen-Chapman noted, “Slam’s patients now have a meaningful voice that influences the way the trust operates.”
Comments are closed.