What’s on at DMH Involvement Centre- June 2015

So what’s happening in June? Well first up we have our Volunteer and Involvement open day on Tuesday 2 June which will showcase volunteering opportunities and some of the projects we are running. Things like getting involved in interviewing, gathering feedback and volunteering on wards and how we support and provide training for this. We will also be showing two films we’ve recently made about The Story Shop and Challenging Your Mental Health Section, so popcorn at the ready.

The rest of the month we have our newly formed Comms Meeting, the Ideal Ward Round project written about elsewhere on this blog, volunteers going along to Prospect House and talking to patients in a Forensic setting as well as the Tuesday Meeting every week from 1pm to 3pm.

The centre is getting busier and new projects are starting up around reviewing the complaints procedure for the Trust, so plenty to keep us busy.

Volunteers are also out and about this month, staring in a film to educate student mental health nurses about what it’s like on a mental health ward and taking part in interviews for new staff in the pharmacy, and lots more.

My experience on a ward gathering data for The Ideal Ward Round project

Hello my name is Eric and I am a volunteer at Rosewood Involvement Centre. We are involved in a research project called the “Ideal Ward Round”. This aims to analyse feedback from patients, carers and clinicians on their experience of ward rounds in acute mental health settings.

On Wednesday 8th April Richard, Tracy and I went to Orchid ward at Millbrook Unit, attached to King’s Mill Hospital, Mansfield.

We had four patients take an interest in filling out the questionnaire, one patient preferred to fill it out by herself because at the time we couldn’t find a private room straight away. Eventually we were given the use of the ladies lounge, although I felt that the staff could have been more helpful in this regard.

Here are some quotes from Richard on his impressions:

“I found it a rewarding experience but very nerve-wracking. I put this down to shadowing for the first time on an acute ward. Eric, Carol, Ingrid and Tracey made me feel very relaxed and much more at ease by the end of the day”

“The ward itself was open and homely with carpets throughout which I found comforting and the view of the garden from the common room was very nice”

“The patients realised that we had mental health issues ourselves and lived experiences and this helped them be more forthcoming “

Overall my experience of the visit was that we gained valuable information and our meeting with patients was relaxed and candid.

Guest post- The ideal ward round project- get involved (James Shutt)

Ward rounds… ever been in one? How did you find it?

Research undertaken over the last 25 years on the experience of ward rounds within in-patient mental health in England has concluded that ward rounds are often significantly and repetitively negative experiences for patients, with a high percentage of those surveyed feeling intimidated by the process and some patients finding ward rounds uninformative or even a cause of anxiety or distress.

Patients are not alone in feeling dissatisfied with ward round practice in mental health. Professionals have also been found to be dissatisfied with the reality of ward rounds, perceiving an urgent need to leave old ways of working behind whilst feeling constrained by existing arrangements and unable to make positive change.

Certain factors affecting patient satisfaction with ward rounds have been highlighted, from the absence or missing of appointment times to ward rounds being overpopulated by staff through to a complete absence of patient involvement in decision-making around care and treatment. However, across the board, there appears to have been a clear gap in asking the open question of patients (as well as staff) as to how the ward round should be devised and managed from their point of view: or in other words, what does the ideal ward round look like to patients as well as those who provide care to them and how can this model be made standard practice in mental health services and result in better experiences?

We believe this is a worthy question and one that deserves attention, which is why advocacy charity POhWER, which delivers a range of information, advice and advocacy services known as Your Voice, Your Choice to people in Nottinghamshire, including those using mental health services, is working in partnership with the Trust’s Involvement Centre to co-ordinate a service review that is currently gaining the views of patients, carers and staff on ward round experiences and will soon be collating these views and working with patients, those with in-patient experience, carers and professionals towards a new model of ward round to be trialled and evaluated within Nottinghamshire HC NHS Foundation Trust.

We would really like to see change and a move towards best practice in ward rounds in mental health and are proud to be part of this inspiring new project owned, led and involving service users and ex-service users. If you feel the same and would be interested in participating in the review, from completing a questionnaire to being more involved in the project itself, please get in touch (on the blog or Tweet @InvolveT1)

DMH Involvement Centre- What’s on

This month in the Involvement Centre is an unusual one as the centre is getting a much needed lick of paint! Choosing the colour scheme was one of the more chaotic Tuesday Meetings, but come next month we should have a beautifully decorated centre that’s ready to make a difference!

The Ideal Ward Round project is still running along at pace. This project hopes to find what an ideal ward round or review looks like for patients and staff on the wards. We started with developing four questionnaires and volunteers have been busy getting out and about across the Trust asking and supporting people to fill in the questionnaires. The two centres Rosewood and Duncan Macmillan House have now managed to get 50 questionnaires completed, which is a significant amount of data for this first stage.

One of the highlights last week for the Ideal Ward Round was being part of the Easter celebrations as part of the Highbury Live! Event. We managed to raise awareness of the project and staff were particularly keen to be involved. With the Rosewood Centre at Millbrook and Bassetlaw we are really gaining momentum.

What with other work over the next month working with the Crisis House, new Trust website and training for volunteers to be involved in serious incident reviews, when the paint dries we’re going to be busy!