Help us understand the needs of mental health patients

Dorset HealthCare has joined forces with The Patients Association to carry out a study aimed at giving a better understanding of how it feels to be a patient using mental health services.

It’s hoped the project will provide a detailed insight into the perspectives and experiences of people who have recently received treatment, and help us consolidate and improve what we do and how we deliver it.

An independent researcher is looking to carry out in-depth interviews with former patients – and your feedback will be anonymised so you can be open and honest with your views.

Julia Yeates is Patient Experience Co-ordinator for the Trust. She said: “This is really important research for us to ensure we continue providing the very highest standards of care when it comes to mental health.

“Integrated care, from in-patient to community mental health, is a key focus for us, and previous feedback has highlighted that some service users can feel the transfer of care is not seamless.

“Information directly from patients about their journey will give us a clear understanding of how effective our care is and better assess how we deliver it.”

Dorset HealthCare is the principal provider of mental health services in Dorset, with more than 970 direct admissions, and 225,000 appointments last year.

In order to gather as clearer picture as possible, we need as many former patients to come forward as possible.

To be eligible to take part, you must have been a mental health inpatient within the last six months on the Chine Ward at St. Ann’s Hospital in Poole, the Linden Unit at Westhaven Hospital in Weymouth or Waterston Ward at Forston Clinic near Dorchester.

You may also have received treatment from Weymouth and Portland, Bournemouth West and Wimborne community mental health or crisis teams during the same period.

Once the feedback has been collated, we will use it to develop an improvement plan.

If you would like to take part, please contact the Patient Experience Team at Dorset HealthCare via email at dhc.patient.experience@nhs.net or call 01202 277027/277029.