Mind in Camden (MIC) and Camden Mental Health Consortium (CMHC) jointly bid for the Advocacy contract in the Level 2 Wards at The Royal Free Hospital. Camden Mental Health Consortium was to be responsible for monitoring the service.

A previous attempt was made using postal questionnaires but failed to produce any significant number of replies.

With the development of the Camden Borough User Group, a further opportunity was provided to monitor the Patients’ Advocacy Project by CBUG members interviewing clients of the service.  The model that was chosen was the one developed by Steve Pilling and CORE at University College London – ‘Your Treatment and Care’ – which has been adopted across the Camden and Islington Mental Health and Social Care Trust and is part of its Clinical Governance Protocols.

CBUG Members were trained in the CORE methodology and assisted the Project Leader (Linda Polan) to devise a questionnaire.  This they tested on each other through role play, refining the questions where necessary and gaining valuable practice for the task.

The Project Leader arranged for potential interviewers to familiarise themselves with the hospital and wards and negotiated the days and hours for interviews to take place, with little or no disruption to the regular work of the wards.

Mind in Camden agreed that each week they would provide CBUG with a list of those clients who had received Advocacy in the previous seven days and who had agreed to take part  in this monitoring project.

On the 13^th October 2003 CBUG members began visiting the wards. By the completion date, 19 interviews have been conducted.  Whilst most are positive about the value of the Advocacy Service, the small number and slow progress presents a problem in relation to the time it will take to complete 50 interviews (regarded as the key figure to provide meaningful information).

The Group was helped to a clearer understanding of these figures by the MiC Project Report which indicates that during the year November 2002 to October 2003 the project saw 75 clients.  If there were to be a 60 % response from clients (which would be considered high), it would take a year to reach the target number.

We decided therefore, to report the position at the end of April 2004 on the interviews completed. Such a report can provide little data of statistical value but may supply helpful qualitative information.

We report here the figures that we obtained, which is mostly easily done by including the aggregated numbers in the questionnaire grid. (Where the numbers do not total 19, this denotes that the question was not applicable to some clients).

10 (0.53%) of the interviewees were male and 9 (0.47%) female.  Nine of the males stated their age as between 27 and 63 years eight of the females stated their ages as between 20 and 55 years.  Ethnicity was self defined and the picture is unclear, although both groups predominantly referred to themselves as ‘British’.  1 male qualified this as ‘Black British’.

One of the interviewees had been in the hospital less than two weeks

The work of the Advocates was reported as very satisfactory and helpful.  17 respondents said they would use the service again and 17 that they would recommend the service to others.  Difficulty in obtaining an Advocate was reported in a total of 20 responses over 3 questions. 

The responses to Q. 22 show that 16 were not informed of the complaints procedure and 6 were.

The independency of the service was clearly explained by the Advocates

CBUG found that the Service was highly regarded and most of the interviewees were positive about it in their responses.  We would advise Mind In Camden to look at how the service is publicised to service users, since from the interviews conducted, it appears that the current system does not work well and not every one is aware of the existence of the Advocacy Service.

We conclude that the Mind in Camden Advocacy Project at the Royal Free Hospital provides a valuable and valued service to the three in-patient wards.  Some respondents expressed concern that the service only took them to the point of discharge and would have been happier had it extended into the community.  This is a plea which is echoed by CMHC and Mind in Camden.

MONITORING MIND in CAMDEN ADVOCACY

at the RFH

DOCUMENTS INCLUDED WITH

CBUG REPORT

ON

MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY

AT

 THE ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL

THE

MIND in CAMDEN

MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY SERVICE AT

THE ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL

Members of CBUG, who are all Users of the Mental Health Services, are asking people who have used The Advocacy Service to help us to find out how effective it is.  Each CBUG member will have a badge containing their name and the CBUG sign

CBUG Members will visit you with a form that has questions that only need to be ticked in the boxes at the side.  They will stay and help you to fill it in and on the final page they can add some comments of yours, if you’d like them to.   

There is no place on the form for your name, address or any other personal details.  All the information you give is completely confidential; no one on the hospital’s Staff will have access to it so it cannot affect your treatment in any way.

You are the clients who have used the Service and no one knows better than you how well The Advocacy Service worked.

The answers you give will help to provide a picture of how successful The Advocacy Service is in dealing with people’s problems.

IF THERE IS ANYTHING MORE YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS PLEASE PHONE 020 7419 4196 AND SOMEONE WILL HELP YOU.

PLEASE KEEP THE PEN AS A TOKEN OF OUR THANKS FOR YOUR TIME AND EFFORT IN HELPING US WITH THIS QUESTIONNAIRE.

CONSENT  FORM

Camden Mental Health Consortium is the largest mental-health user group in the London Borough of Camden.  Its members are users, former users and survivors of the mental health services.  Its working arm is the Camden Borough User Group (CBUG).

CBUG is currently conducting an independent monitoring exercise of the Mind in Camden Advocacy Project at The Royal Free Hospital and would like you to complete a questionnaire about your experiences of using that project.  The exercise is confidential and no-one involved in your care or the advocacy project will see the completed questionnaire.   

·        I give my permission for Mind In Camden to forward my name to    CBUG (Camden Borough User Group)

·        This is with a view to CBUG contacting me to arrange an interview, whilst I am in hospital.

·        This interview will be for CBUG to gain my views on the Royal Free Advocacy Project.

MONITORING MIND in CAMDEN ADVOCACY at the RFH

YOUR ADMISSION

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAY ANYTHING ELSE ABOUT THE ADVOCACY SERVICE AND THE TREATMENT YOU RECEIVED FROM IT, PLEASE DO SO ON THIS PAGE

Date………………………………

CBUG NOTES Date …………………….

Our thanks are due to CBUG interviewers who participated in this project:

Martin Elman    David Hayes    Alasdair Lees

Cathleen Mainds   Richard Leader   Noel Walker

to:       Stuart Butler (Advocate)  Tom Costley (Manager) and all Staff Employed by Mind in Camden during this Project

to CORE Staff:

Steve Pilling (Director)     Julia von Hauenschild (Research Assistant)

Assistant Director, Camden Mental Health Services

George  Platts