"Distressing and unsafe experience"

Dear Aba

I am sorry to hear that you have not had a positive experience with services within the Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust as you explained in your review which was published on 31 January 2018. We have taken your concerns seriously and apologise that your experience of our service did not match the high standards we aim to achieve.

Managers and staff working within these services have been looking at the issues raised by service users and carers accessing crisis services, some of which are posted on Care Opinion and on NHS Choices websites. We have been really concerned to read about the experiences that people are telling us about. Our Trust like elsewhere faces financial challenges and constraints but we are working hard within this framework to maintain quality services, and to ensure we listen to, and learn from, feedback to improve services. We have posted information about this service and changes we have made before.

We understand the immense responsibility and difficulties which often accompanies caring for people with mental health difficulties therefore we aim to work collaboratively with service users' social networks. This could be direct family members, friends, or anyone in fact the service user feels can help with supporting them during their crisis period.

We take on board concerns by carers as we appreciate that you have a very pertinent role in their recovery, and indeed, aside from the service user themselves, often know them the best. There is also support available for carers in the Camden Borough from the Camden Carer's Service. If this is something you are interested in, I urge you to get in touch so we can support you to link in with this service.

We also have the carer's service attending our Acute Division team meetings to raise awareness in sessions directed at staff.

You mentioned that the responses on some of the Care Opinion posts appear to be 'cut and paste'. We strive to respond to concerns in a personalised manner however due to not having specific names, locations and overall information, we are unable to investigate and resolve matters as efficiently and completely as we would like when they are raised through this forum. For this reason some of the responses can tend to be generic and service focused. It would therefore be really helpful if you could contact us directly so that the managers can investigate this particular concern fully.

The Camden Crisis Team managers would really like to set up a meeting with you to work through the issues you raise in relation to caring for your son, to see what services are involved and what can be done in relation to offering a robust care plan going forward.

You mention that you have waited up to three days before someone called you back in the past. Having more information regarding your name and your son's name and when you contacted the Crisis Call Centre would assist in narrowing down what occurred. We now have a new voicemail system which means that a staff member is allocated the voicemail task during the day and follows up on all the voice messages within the hour.

We have also built up capacity during the particularly busy times and ensured that voicemails needing responses are passed across to the staff working in the Crisis Teams to action there and then if required.

The Camden and Islington Crisis Resolution Teams operate a Call Centre service Monday to Sunday, 365 days per year between Sam and 8:45pm. This is staffed by clinicians, not administrators, so that service users can get to speak to a health professional directly. It is a busy part of the service and sometimes it means there is a wait to get through, hence why a voicemail option was introduced to alleviate this.

During the day in the Crisis Call Centre, there are up to six clinicians at peak times responding to calls. At night time, the service is run by a single staff member per borough who can respond and who attends the various Emergency Departments within London in addition to answering calls or voice messages where they are not able to respond immediately.

Staff are also instructed to reply to all voicemail messages as soon as they are able, although the time can vary dependent on nature of the work. As the Crisis Call Centre is the single point of access for all the crisis teams in Camden and Islington, there are a high volume of calls received hence why callers are directed to leave a voicemail when they cannot get through.

Whilst we recognise the importance of online feedback we really want to encourage service users and carers to contact us directly. Each service users' needs are unique and this enables us to provide a more specific and tailored response.

Thank you once more for your feedback. Please do get in touch and allow us to arrange a meeting to discuss the issues you raise concerning your son in more detail. We value complaints as a vital source of feedback about the services we provide and are committed to using this feedback to generate improvement. Please do contact the staff members below so that your concerns can be addressed.

Nonie Fennell-Kelty
Crisis Call Centre Manager
Telephone +44 (0)20 75614132
Email: nonie.fennell-kelly@candi.nhs.uk

Debbie May
OperationalService Manager
Crisis Resolution Teams & Crisis Call
Email: debbie.may@candi.nhs.uk

Yours sincerely

Angela McNab
Chief Executive