Users of community mental health services say 2gether are doing a good job

Users of community mental health services say 2gether are doing a good job

The results of the 2011 survey of people who use ²gether NHS Foundation Trust community mental health services was published yesterday (9 August) by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The experiences of nearly 300 people who have used ²gether’s community services during the past 12 months show that the Trust is continuing to deliver good quality and personalised services. Including those offered by outpatient clinics and local teams providing crisis home treatment, assertive outreach, early intervention for psychosis, and generic community mental health services.

All 65 NHS mental health trusts in England were surveyed.

Respondents scored ²gether better than the national average on service users knowing the lead professional responsible for their care, having a copy of their NHS care plan, and meeting regularly to discuss their care.

Trish Jay, Director of Quality and Performance at the Trust, said: “The results from the survey are very encouraging. They show that we are achieving comparable results with other mental health providers nationally and in some important areas, our service users are telling us that we are doing significantly better. However, we are not complacent and will continue to work hard to help ensure that those in our care receive the highest quality of outcomes, safety and experience.”

Cynthia Bower, CQC chief executive, said: “The new cross-government strategy for mental health outcomes, No health without mental health, was launched in February. One of its overall aims is to improve outcomes for people through high-quality services that are accessible to all.

“The results of the community mental health survey this year and in the future have been identified in the strategy as one of the key sources of information to assess progress in improving people’s experience of care and support.”

Trish continued, “It is so important that our services users and their carers continue to give us feedback on their local services. We can then continue to improve our services based on their experiences and priorities.”