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Sense of Community project

Posted By melvern91

"Sense of Community project"

About: Rampton Hospital

(as a staff member posting for a patient/service user),

Malvern ward

The Sense of community project has affected me in a negative way. The Sense of Community doesn’t exist on Malvern and the 6 C’s didn’t apply. It has affected my confidence in approaching staff- it is seen as me moaning.

It has the potential to be of value if individuals can be seen as important, if we can unite as patients and staff it would be good, happy and a busy patient is better for everybody.

There seems to have been no leadership from staff on the project and no energy from staff. Nursing assistants I came into contact with didn’t want to be involved, they said you had to speak to a qualified but it felt like passing the buck. There was lack of materials with few resources. The pictures for the Northern Lights project didn’t get done as there is no activities co-ordinator due to the problems experienced. There is no point of contact. I am willing to be involved but it seems that no-one wants to be involved, it seems like an inconvenience to the staff.

The positives of the project are that I’m still alive and I’ve managed to get through a difficult time. The feeling of a ‘them and us’ attitude is not conducive to my mental health. We’ve had no Christmas celebrations, no prizes or gifts so the Christmas spirit was lacking. The decorations didn’t come until too late.

A senior member of staff said to put energy and resources into individuals if others don’t want to be involved. When activities are cancelled we need some activities on the ward to stop boredom which leads to bad behaviour.

I am only on a small income so cannot afford craft things for myself. A positive thing was the making of the 3D Christmas cards. It would be nice to have management attend the community meetings- do they sit down with individual patients to give individual care needs? There are no OT’s on the ward, it’s a struggle to get activities to reduce self-harm.

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Responses

Response from Kerry Burton, Head of Business & Operations, Rampton Hospital, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust 6 years ago
Kerry Burton
Head of Business & Operations, Rampton Hospital,
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

Submitted on 04/01/2018 at 15:34
Published on Care Opinion at 16:32

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback. The Sense of Community Project focused on both staff and patients at Rampton Hospital working collaboratively on communal projects to see if they could improve their sense of community. I am sorry to read that you felt that the project had a negative impact. I am aware that Malvern Ward are in the process of planning a ward community day, where nursing staff and members of the Multi-Disciplinary Team alongside patients will focus on the ward community and ways to improve the experience of belonging in that environment. This forum should provide the chance for individuals to express their views and for the community to work together and to agree on interventions required to improve the communal environment. I hope your involvement with this will prove a postive experience.

In terms of management attendance at community meetings, as Modern Matron of the Personality Disorder service I agree with this concept. Myself and the Deputy Matrons within the service do attend on an ad hoc basis and the ward Managers are in attendance at your weekly meetings to provide that visible leadership. Having attended meetings within the service it is great to see that the meetings are patient led and that the forum provides opportunity for communal issues to be explored in a safe and supportive way. Christmas was a focus of the most recent meetings attended on Malvern Ward and the decorations looked festive. Sadly the Directorate were not in a position financially to provide gifts and prizes for the wards, however a small budget was provided for extra provisions over the festive period.

In terms of activities provided, the hospital is working hard at reducing the number of activities cancelled and there are reporting systems in place to monitor this. The directorate do hold an involvement meeting where activities are discussed regularily. If you can it would be great to see you there.

I hope this response has been useful and thank you again for your comments.

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