Our documents
Being Happy, Being Me report published in Mental Health Awareness Week
Posted on 09/05/2017
New report looks at young people’s attitudes and understanding of mental health in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
Young people tell us what they think about the language that is used to describe mental health, what their experiences of services have been and how they would like to get help if they need it. The Being Happy, Being Me project has been undertaken to help local commissioners re-design young people's mental health services.
We found that young people can be confused about the words we use to describe mental health and well-being. Words like thriving and resilience were not commonly understood. More needs to be done to address issues around stigma and encourage young people to understand that mental health is something we all have and need to nurture.
As part of our project, we spoke to over 500 young people at four secondary schools in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Around one in seven of the young people who shared their thoughts with us told us that they have had experience of using mental health services. They also shared with us some of the things that would help make mental health support work well for them.
This project is part of a programme of work with young people to help local health and care commissioners understand what will help young people keep emotionally well and cope with difficulties in life.
It was funded by Cambridgeshire County Council, Peterborough City Council and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group. They are working together to develop a new way of providing mental health care for young people, called ‘I-THRIVE’.
Enter and View report - Addenbrooke’s Emergency Department, Clinical Decision Unit and Ambulatory Care Unit
Posted on 28/02/2017
‘Staff are helpful and caring’. That's the main message people told us when we visited Addenbrooke's Hospital in early December.
We spoke to more than 50 people on two separate visits to the hospital, spending time in both the adult and children's areas of the Emergency Department, as well as the Ambulatory Care Unit and the Clinical Decision Unit. The visits were done using our power to Enter and View. This is Healthwatch's legal right to visit places that provide publicly funded health or care, to see and hear how people experience those services.
Our report makes seven recommendations to the hospital to improve care; these are based on what we observed and what patients told us about their experiences. These recommendations have been accepted by the hospital, who have developed an action plan to address them. This includes:
- Reminding staff about the importance of ensuring people’s privacy and dignity, after we told them about patients not being adequately covered up whilst they were waiting on trolleys in the X-ray department.
- Initiating extra cleaning checks at busy times of day after we spotted some areas where cleaning needed to be improved.
- Asking staff to update waiting screen times every hour, so people know how long their wait is likely to be. They are also investigating adding another screen in the main waiting room.
We will check with the hospital again in six-months’ time, to see what progress they have made against our recommendations.
Unannounced Enter & View Visit to Hinchingbrooke Hospital Emergency Department
Posted on 22/12/2016
Hospital staff are friendly but the Emergency Department (ED) can be very busy and patients aren’t always getting the privacy they need.
In October, our volunteers made two visits to the ED at Hinchingbrooke Hospital to listen to local people’s experiences. The visits were ‘unannounced’ and were done using our power to Enter and View. This is Healthwatch's legal right to visit places that provide publicly funded health or care, to see and hear how people experience those services.
Our report makes eleven recommendations to improve care; these are based on what we observed and what 64 patients told us about their experiences. These recommendations have been accepted by the Trust who have developed an action plan to address them.
Hinchingbrooke Hospital Emergency Department Enter and View report Hinchingbrooke Hospital Action plan (appendix five)
