"Group Feedback Session- Day Service"

Care Opinion Group Session 6th December 2019

We (Engagement & Experience Facilitators from SHSC NHS FT) have been invited to the St Georges Eating Disorder Day Service. We met with a group of service users and talked about their experiences and thoughts of the service.

The service users who took part in the session talked about different activities they attend at the Day Service. Although all the sessions were found to be helpful some more enjoyable than others.

The activity that seems to be the most popular is the Relaxation group which recently has been moved from Tuesdays to Fridays. This change in the activity schedule was seen as particularly beneficial, especially that it was no longer followed by a CBT workshop. The other two sessions that were perceived as enjoyable were the Creative group and Cooking group. The participants told us the Creative group involved a variety of activities which helped break-up the more intense sessions. The Cooking group allows service users to make their own suggestions of the meals they would like to prepare and staff are very supportive.

A couple of sessions were seen as both enjoyable and helpful. These were the Motivation group and Nutrition group.

The helpful, more intense and less pleasant courses were; CBT, Body Image, Relationships and Meal planning.

CBT was described as repetitive and not always helpful, although it was also recognised that it might just be that it isn’t suitable for everyone. The other three sessions, although seen as less enjoyable, help to put things in perspective and the participants felt supported and understood by staff. The group agreed that although some workshops might be more intense than others there is a reason why they are on the programme and they are very helpful and needed in recovery.

During group sessions the participants felt that staff always checked in on individuals and that they were always made to feel that you were able to pull a staff member aside for some individual time if you didn’t want to talk during the group sessions.

The Recovery App was found to be really quick and easy to use. One participant felt it was more useful at the start but as they had been part of the service for a longer time they used it less, another found that they were still finding it really useful even though they had been part of the service for approximately the same amount of time.

Although the whole service was described as extremely helpful and not needing much improvement, there were a few things that were mentioned as ‘could be better or different’. Some group members felt that the meal planning could be done on a one-to-one basis rather than in a group setting. Though there was an understanding that some time was already given to this is key working sessions if you wanted it.

The two main things that stood out as needing improvement were a bigger kitchen and another toilet to be available.  The smallness of the kitchen meant that at busy times you all feel squashed in there together and it can be quite anxiety provoking and that the small table can feel overwhelming when busy.

Overall the Day Service was described as a really good starting point and helpful for their recovery.  The staff were seen as very supportive and understanding. All the service users felt that they were involved in decision making and that they had a final word on their length of stay.