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Mixed verdict on mental healthcare
6:01pm Friday 25th July 2008
Comments (7)THE organisation responsible for mental health services in Wiltshire has received mixed results following a nationwide survey into care.
Wiltshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) funds care for people with mental disorders in the county, through the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.
It runs centers across the county including Charter House in Trowbridge.
On Wednesday this week the independent Government-financed health watchdog the Healthcare Commission published the results of the largest ever review of acute inpatient mental health services.
It gave trusts a score out of 100 for each of the areas it asked questions about.
In Wiltshire and Avon the best results were reserved for the care and treatment the patients received from the community psychiatric nurse.
On the whole the nurses listened to patients, engendered a relationship of trust and treated the patients with respect and dignity. Thanks to the nurses the trust scored 77/100 in that category.
Care co-ordinators were also given praise and they scored 71/100 for their work with the people they care for.
Patients also had good things to say about the care and treatment from psychiatrists. They said psychiatrists definitely listened carefully to them, treated them with respect and dignity and made time to discuss their condition. The trust scored 69/100.
However, when judged on the level of support for carers or family members the trust scored poorly.
On the whole patients said their family carers had not been given enough information about their condition.
Patients also said that support for their carers from health and social services was minimal. The trust scored 32/100.
The trust was also criticised for the level at which it involved the patients in their own rehabilitation and care.
Fewer than half said they had enough say in decisions about their care and only half said their diagnosis had been discussed with them. The trust scored 46/100.
Sally Thomson, director of nursing at the mental health care partnership, said: "Since the review, we have significantly improved services by listening to our communities, commissioners and our independent reviewers. This has already resulted in some major improvements.
"We take our responsibility to service users extremely seriously, and are committed to ensuring safe, high quality services across all 16 adult wards within the Trust. We are confident that we have, and will be able to address any areas of concern to ensure that we continue to provide the right care, at the right place at the right time."
A spokesman for Wiltshire PCT said they were working with the mental healthcare partnership to address weaknesses raised in the report.
Your Say YourWiltshire Times
Des, Wiltshire says...
7:18am Sat 26 Jul 08
michip, Chippenham says...
11:52am Sat 26 Jul 08
michip, Chippenham says...
11:55am Sat 26 Jul 08
Disgusted of, Westbury says...
5:45pm Sat 26 Jul 08
michip wrote:
I really don't know how this was scored?? This service is extremely over stretched and you have to wait a long time to see anybody!!! Unless you are hurting yourself or anybody else, you just have to sit and wait. Surely its better to get the help before you get to that point?? More money definitly needs to go into this service!!!
Another of Maggies messes. There used to be adequate funding and beds. It was all slung out by her. The end result was that MHP's ended up walking the streets with disastrous consequences as we all can see.
Necker, Trowbridge says...
6:08pm Sat 26 Jul 08
Disgusted of wrote:This government has had plenty of time to address these issues but preferred to adopt them, in fact perpetuate them.
michip wrote: I really don't know how this was scored?? This service is extremely over stretched and you have to wait a long time to see anybody!!! Unless you are hurting yourself or anybody else, you just have to sit and wait. Surely its better to get the help before you get to that point?? More money definitly needs to go into this service!!!Another of Maggies messes. There used to be adequate funding and beds. It was all slung out by her. The end result was that MHP's ended up walking the streets with disastrous consequences as we all can see.
There comes a time when you need to forget the past and look to the future and improve in any failings inherited.
Something this Government has not done.
Its time for a radical change in mentality and outlook. There cannot be any change without one, as this last term of goverment has proved.
The money is there, its just being sucked up with things like inner city rejuvenation projects and cultural integration iniiatives and other colourfully named taxpits instead of grassroots national issues that affect us directly such as this storys issue.
Disgusted of, Westbury says...
6:21pm Sat 26 Jul 08
You didn't mention the illegal wars.
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Necker, Trowbridge says...
8:34pm Fri 25 Jul 08
The nurses and carers that deal face to face with the issues are appreciated by us all and are held in the highest regard for their roles.
As soon as you reach the level of the hierarchy treats us as numbers, £ symbols and statistics they are detached from it all and don't really care about people.
There may be exceptions to the rule but they are not as numerous as they should be as the results show.
We need to invest more in the people that matter and less on ineffective paper shufflers.